Malcolmsian economics:

Malcolmsian economics:

If a person’s expenditure is less than their income, they can relax and focus upon life’s delights.

Without wanting to sound like an annoying advert for the Tesco food emporium, every penny matters. A bucket with holes in needs to be refilled at a faster rate than it leaks. The lower the water level in the bucket, the less holes are leaking – due to the fact that not all the holes are on the very bottom of the bucket! The more water in the bucket, the more water is pushed out the holes.

Solution? Spend less and find equalibrium. Work to fill specific holes in your life. There is a finite amount of this ‘water’ (money or resources) in the world too, so the more ‘water’ someone takes the less is available for others. I see why they refer to liquidity in economics.

‘Consumerism’ is like a “dis-ease”, creating unsustainable living conditions and misery for millions. We all need to stop spending so much!

Try this:

• Go out without money or plastic cards in your pocket.
• Set budgets and limits.
• Stop using shopping as a way to feel happier.
• Focus upon nature’s beauty which is free.
• Entertain yourself.
• Experience “going without”.
• Stop buying on credit!!!

The day after writing this blog, I read an article on the BBC website about the coming “Eco Crunch”.

This is an article close to my heart, since it is plain for all to see that we are using global resources too fast, living beyond our means and beyond the planet’s capacity to sustain this over consumption. We face bankrupcy on a global scale if we do not take action now. 6 billion actions, starting now – and not stopping until we are back in credit.

Do or die, I say.

Imagine an International Welfare System

I have a dream – I dare to imagine a world not unlike that described by John Lennon. I imagine an international welfare system, providing the basic needs of life, to all, free of charge, as a right.

I look to the creation of the British Welfare State in 1945, following the Beverage report of 1942. The subsequent National Insurance Act and National Health Service Act.

This was created to tackle the horrors of late Victorian Britain and has been under attack ever since by those opposed to any form of social cooperation, or socialism. The most sustained attack came in the 1980’s when the right wing government of Thatcher weakened the welfare system, privatised the essentials of human life (for profit) and encouraged corporate provision of basic services (for profit). Privatisation extended well beyond the utilities of water and energy (remember the attack on the coal miners?) to the privatisation of housing. We now call it a housing market – how easily we fall into line?

In 1914 90% of dwellings in Britain were privately rented. In 1993 70% of dwellings were privately ‘owned’ (with debt to banks). Thatcher also attacked the welfare state by limiting children’s access to free school meals and ending free milk. She is also known for the introduction of aerated ice-cream. Yes, bulking ice-cream out with air. That seems to typify her economic policies – create a profit margin, thus a surplus for private gain. Never the provision of quality but instead the creation of winners and losers, capitalists and consumers, with a profit skimmed off.

Those of you who ideologically rally to the right wing call of unregulated market economics think of the time you spend trying to contact your bank by phone, the hours spent listening to recorded messages, the rise in your gas bills, the need to boil your water and the ludicrous mess that is our train ‘network’. Think of your mortgage rising and your blood pressure. Think of houses that will fall down before you do, of equipment that fails before the warranty is up. What about your health? Is this the best we can get? What about the ‘quality’ – the quality of life? I’m not talking of the past but of my dream for the future!

My dream – is to take the principle of the welfare state and apply it globally – to everyone, irrespective of race, religion, age, health, ability to pay or even if they want it or not.

Clean drinking water, basic food, shelter, access to basic healthcare. Clean air too.

This paid for by all of us, the wealthy, through taxation, via international organisations (such as a true United Nations). Not hand outs for doing nothing, not dependency upon benefits and grants but a simple safety net and thus the ability to function as human beings, to work, create and supply.

There are those who say we cannot afford it. These are the same as the Victorian gentlemen (gentle?) who praised work houses, asylums, exploitation of foreign people and resources. The same as those who draped in fine clothes, jewels and fine perfume step over the poor, destitute and depressed begging in the street. The same as those who looked upon people with different skin colour as either slaves or vermin.

We, in this country, have moved on from those dark days of extreme wealth and extreme poverty – largely thanks to Lloyd George and Beverage – yet the threat of slipping back into those times is returning as the beast of corporate greed prowls the globe, cloaked in media beautification and advertising. The gap between rich and poor is widening – not just globally but in our own country. Some think this is good. How sick is that? They’ll have us building famine walls across the land before see us healthy.

We can afford a global human dignity. We can afford an International Welfare System. We can eradicate the gross disparity in living conditions, quality of life, life expectancy, health. Oh yes, we can do this. We will have to change but we can do it. In the past our wealth was extracted from the poorer regions of the Empire on the backs of slaves, serfs and the murdered (to put it bluntly). What is stopping us is the myth that it cannot be done (quickly), that we would all be living in squalor and, the worst reason of all, that a lot of people do not care. A few even actively encourage an economic system that keeps themselves segregated in their opulent wealth, estates, gated communities and secure palaces. We sit in our safe countries detached from real suffering, safe behind our passports, immigration officials and border guards.

We rich get fat, depressed, bored and stressed. The poor get sick, starve, terrified or killed. The proof that the present system isn’t working is all around us. Life is, for most of us, not all that good. We turn to drugs, religion or suicide as ways to cope. We block it out, have a drink, watch TV, take anti-depressants, focus on any distraction we can to deny the truth. We are not as well as we could be.

The signs are it is going to get much worse: Global warming, energy crisis, food supplies, population increase, pollution, loss of drinkable water, debt, ill health. Oh stop! However, these are issues that will not, cannot go away. There is no magic wand, no caring super power (god), no alternate universe. We are up against the wall with nowhere to hide. So either we do something about it and make life better or we just numb our heads and give up. As you are reading this (as opposed to being off your head or dead) I guess you are not really the “bury your head and ignore it” sort of person.

So, lets have a Beverage Report for the 21st century, for our problems of today, for the people around us and the place we live. 60 years ago the National Health Service changed life in Britain. Not everyone believed in it, just as some prefer the ‘ways’ in the US today. They are a small minority. The majority want a safer, securer, healthier and fairer future – and we know, in our hearts that it might just be us who needs help in the future – so better help everyone and be a good Samaritan. It also makes us feel better helping others.

Life today is better than those men of Victorian Britain knew – so too could our future be better than today!

Imagine … and then make it happen.

My Top 10 Charities / Non-profits

I have this compelling need to tell you, mythical reader of this blog, of my chosen charities – ones close to the ethos of this blog, so potentially of interest to you.

My top 10 charities are:

• Survival International
• Water Aid
• Practical Action
• New Internationalist
• Amnesty International
• MSF -  Médecins Sans Frontières
• Greenpeace
• Friends of the Earth
• John Muir Trust
• Soil Association

Have a look at them and be inspired.

The avenues for positive change are open – we need only walk them.

~ ~ ~

“Leave it a little better than you find it”

Can Gordon Brown play chess?

We know Russians are good at playing chess – and this encourages strategic thinking.

We know our politicians are becoming more dependent upon focus groups, media moods and swing voters.

Are our politicians doing the job we pay them to do, looking after the complex strategic issues of economy, defense, security, energy, environment – issues beyond our own personal control and influence? What smart plans do they have? Or are they so focused on the short term worries of re-election? Maybe the roll of energy governance should be with Whitehall, as interest rates are with the Bank of England?

You cannot win at chess against grand masters by only looking a couple of moves ahead. It is not poker! So too in world affairs. Our politicians need to stop watching their backs and start watching the future!

Energy, water, food, housing, health, global warming, security, war … these are all the fundamentals of survival yet they threaten us now in our affluent world.

What kind of miss-management is this? Have we become so lazy, so over confident and careless as to squander our wealth? Or are our politicians playing games with us, the electorate? I used to think they were smart but now I am not so sure. I now tend to think of them as overpaid.

What is our energy policy? When are we going to seriously reduce energy waste and over consumption of this scarce, expensive and politically sensitive stuff? In times of crisis we grew our own food, mined our energy and worked for the common good. We pulled together. So where is the message now to tighten our belts, reduce waste, be more self-sufficient and frugal, as a nation? Lead from the top Gordon, or leave the stage. We have a job to do.

If you cannot play chess – don’t pretend you can. Even little Harry Potter knew that! Independence and self determination nationally require smart, strategic thinking. If you mess up with Russia you end up cap in hand to the US. Oh I forgot, we already did that, TB.

The way out of the present economic slowdown is not to encourage growth, consumerism, housing capitalism and a binge party! Take the message of frugality, common interest and reduced consumption to the people! We don’t want more energy – we want better use of less energy! We don’t want higher house prices – we want higher living standards for all! We don’t want Big Brother – we want good governance, of our affairs. And we must demand this of our politicians – we employ them!

Anyone who thinks private enterprise is an efficient method for the provision of basic human needs – water, food, air, fuel, shelter, health, security – need only look at the world to see it is not. Look beyond capitalism and profit – use our brains to improve the world, not just struggle to slow the decay. We can do better!

Stop messing about with world religions (and clinging on to neo-conservative visions of a new world order) and thus fueling hatred (which is convenient for the war mongers, see blog) and get on with the basics. It is clearly too much for you to manage much else.

That is this morning’s rant out of the way, now I can proceed with the day sure in the knowledge that although this is public (I feel better getting it off my chest), no one will actually read it (and embarrass my naivety). Ahh, the world of blogging!

How did I become a good consumer?

I have looked back into my past to try and understand how I became the person I am today – how I became a good consumer? (By ‘good’ I mean effective, good at the activity, not pure and praiseworthy). I started by scribbling these notes with a pencil whilst my computer was searched for spyware – a common feature of life with Microsoft. My brain could not hold back, so pencil in hand, I wrote:

“Sirens of consumerism, seducing us with advertising.

Why do we need advertising? How much is information and how much is persuasion? Silver-tongued snake oil salesmen and the black art of emotional manipulation … politicians, traders, editors, marketers, speculators, sellers of advertising space … ordinary human beings and some of the most creative brainpower … going towards encouraging over consumption and deteriorating living conditions, in society and environment (one and the same). They have to feed the kids, roof their home somehow.

I have the image of drug addicts, chasing the dragon, of scrawny crack-cocaine addicts pushing pills to pay for that ache-relieving fix.

Where, I thought, does this process begin? What causes these bright brains and otherwise beautiful beings to a) want b) want more c) feed the addiction by selling? I need to understand how it happens so I can stop it happening and help people off the addiction. Using the power of memory, which is fading with neglect, I peer through old imagery in my head to my childhood and the origins of “me”.

Childhood dreams of motorbikes, glory and adoration. Adverts and glossy pictures, gleaming paintwork and delicious curves captured in sharp and soft images. And the semi-naked woman adorning the bike, writhing, imploring me to … what? I didn’t know but for a teenage (just) boy her body lured my brain cells like metal filings to a magnet. A magnet with a bike attached. I guess my subconscious wanted her but my consciousness wanted the bike. I started to get pictures of bikes from the local bike shop. Super glossy A4 leaflets with a picture one side, technical detail the other. I drawled over the exquisite beauty of the Yamaha, the Honda, I imagined in astounding detail the roll of the wheel and the effortless acceleration (I knew how to ride a bicycle and also knew the effort involved and craved power). My head collected numbers, horsepower, torque, suspension travel, and the most magic of them all, the 0 – 60 mph, the acceleration – that which was beyond my physical capabilities and that would thrust me forward in adrenaline intoxication. Freud fans can read between the lines, I’m sure.

This was a time in the 1970’s, pre mobile phones, satellite media, internet, designer clothes – at least in my world. Heck, Britain was not long out of rationing and was deep in debt to the USA. This was a time of pocket money, toys, paper rounds and playground friendships. I knew no magazines or tabloid papers and adverts on tv seemed to be for housewives (not my mum) with their detergents and shampoos. All stuff I didn’t buy.

Yet slowly, the general culture of my society trickled into my head. There were the motorbikes and what other boys talked of at school. There was television and what was talked of the next day. Long before I saw vast wealth and fashion, in the face, I was learning to judge my existence relative to images instead of copying real people. This set up aspirations and then expectations, a sense of being different from those around me. My town was small and uneventful. Life went on at the pace of old ladies, shopping trolley in tow. I knew of other things – giraffes, skyscrapers, sexy women and motorbikes.

Most dominant in my growing up was my family and my parents. It was their lifestyle choices I was cultured in. No dinner parties, no magazines, no razzmatazz or show business. I grew up with reading comics as they read the Guardian; toy soldiers and football whilst they grew vegetables; annoyance at the news and neighbours which I copied. We went on camping holidays, ate together (7 of us, plus a dog), walked in the countryside, did chores, watched tv and I went to school. Television was dominated by sport (Saturday afternoon was religiously filled with the football results ritual, tea and two biscuits), nature programmes, news (it was the BBC after all) and the entertainment: starsky and hutch, kojak, star trek, 6 million dollar man, tom and jerry; plus blue peter, the good life, all creatures great and small. The outside world trickled into my quiet, secluded town.

Second was school. (There is a reason I love Pink Floyd). School was the slow, steady hammering of my brain into shape, in the forge of indoctrination. Subtle, repetitive beats that bruised and damaged me: Competition, class, distinction, difference, segregation, routine, rules, conformity, slow atrophication of creativity and spirit, flattening of humour, spontaneity and cooperation. We formed cliques, we were competing on a scramble up the ladder. We all new it. There was a hierarchy and we each had a rung to occupy. Some how I began to expect / dream of a rise to the top. Hard work and compliance would be the ticket out of this trauma – this ‘end of childhood’. I was not allowed to return to my games and imagination (except during play time and after school). There was one trap door marked “Future” and it required a pass – exams and grades and escape to adulthood in the freedom of independence – university, and a rise to the clear air of choice, self determination, control.

Expectations were set by parents and school – pass exams and get a career, grow up and be a man. Success, achievement, purpose, a good life. I was led to believe, like a lamb, that “others have this, you not only can but you ‘should’ have it too. Along side this were the other messages: You will be liked more, you will be admired, you will be ‘better’.

I was lucky. Whilst I was subjected to the mass culture, I was better off (in my opinion) than the rest. I was intelligent, well adjusted, healthy (umm, and male, white and well spoken). I was also heavily exposed to nature, not just the nurture of society. My parents did an excellent job in giving me experiences that I now treasure – the garden, badminton on the lawn and shuttlecocks stuck in the ash tree – sandwiches and tea and the sound of tennis balls thwacked at Wimbledon – the open spaces of Welsh hillsides and the rocky freedom of mountain tops – holidays in France and a tricky language – new potatoes and shelling peas – gathering mint for the Sunday roast – life by candlelight and the flicker of light from a wood fire – the smells and hisses of scots pine – the cackle of fulmars on the quarry wall. The list goes on in my head, for day, weeks, a childhood. This is what would eventually save me.

The trauma of the end of childhood and the trap door to freedom led to the escape from school and on to university – from the frying pan into the fire! I was so let down, almost devastated by the disappointment of what was really a school for over 18s. It was the wrong time to give me such a sense of deprivation – my hopes were high and I was fuelled like a rocket – and my hormones were moaning. I’d had a near death experience and knew life could be snuffed out in an instant by some other’s error or a momentary lapse of judgement. Life was potentially short. Russia and USA were in an arms race to oblivion (still unfolding) and the human virus was sickening the planet. All around the end seemed just around the corner and I had two thoughts – avoid it happening and try to do something about it. That ‘end’, was not just the end of life but also the end of my hope, the hope of freedom, the life of my dreams. The aches of growing pains were in my heart as much as my limbs. I was an emotional animal, by now confused and misguided, bruised and beaten, lonely and vulnerable. It was the 1980s. I was ready for a quick fix.

So that is the process, as I see it, how ordinary people arrive at being addicted and controlled by their addiction. The purveyors of false dreams that we are told money will buy are just you and me (well, except you are just a bit-part dealer not a multi-national trader in virtual reality. I don’t believe they are going to read this blog, ever.

This reminds me of something my father once said: “If they are not trying to kill you – you are not threatening them”. Yes, big brother may be watching but we are mostly safely below the radar, doped up on dreams and alcohol. You don’t have to watch the rats to know they are safely locked in the sewer. (I grew up listening to the Stranglers, on an old record player, scratching my brother’s album with a 78 needle). Think of all the assassinations.

I guess one of the problems is that many addicts are quite happy in their haze, so long as they have enough of their drug, and it is hard to get them to give up voluntarily. Even if their behaviour is destroying them, spoiling your life and collectively screwing the planet’s ecosystems. Persuading an addict to get clean is the story of my life, now and into the future.

Now, I am a ‘bad consumer’ yet still a vast processor of resources. Still the planet is crawling with diseased specimens of a species that is heading towards collapse. And we know it. The best bit is, life is remarkably resilient, there are millions of us who are aware and are fighting the disease, and life today is amazing. The future for many may be bleak and for millions of humans living today it is (I learn via mass media, the lives of others who I have never seen but feel for … fellow humans) but I am living an amazing life as I try to do good. I try my best”.

Attention to detail – happiness, quality of life and survival

Whether you want to know how to survive some future disaster or whether you want to enjoy the present times more – you’ve got to pay attention to detail. You need to be aware; awake; alert.

Beware Unexpected Danger - Wolf in sheep's clothing

Life is passing by and often it takes a scare or terminal illness to get folks up, out and doing things. Too often life is lived in a dull, repetetive indifference. Stop that and smell the roses! Explore the flow of energy that is life. Use your senses and live!

You would do well to turn off the television and start reading. Educate yourself.

Suggested reading:

Flow by Csikszentmihalyi

Your Money or your Life

Happiness: Lessons from a New Science

Simple Prosperity

Affluenza

A New Earth

Eckhart Tolle – A New Earth 8CDs

Also look at:

Finding Your Perfect Work

Finding Your Own North Star

Blink

Life is too short and every new day is a blessing. Hence why I say, “you should play to survive”!

I am watching my cat fall asleep – it is so cute!

Tool Sharing – Reduce Storage and Wastage … Freeconomy Community

How about we start local tool share “libraries”? Instead of books, let’s share tools. So instead of everyone being consumers and having their own lawn mowers, why not share them?

I bet there are tools in your shed gathering dust, rarely used, taking up space, going rusty, costing you money.

Garage Clutter by GregPC*

I bet there are many families, especially new ones, who do not have the tools to repair things themselves, so are locked into a cycle of consumerism, trying to break free by buying the tools they need. Well, let’s share! You might not like to lend tools out to everyone – so you need a way to keep track of who has what.

Freecycle, my local library, lift share schemes, hospitality and couchsurfing websites … they are all good ideas … so let’s go one better. Neighbours do it a bit and often fall out over it, because it is not organised. Business does it and keeps costs / cashflow in check. Farmers share combine harvesters. Why not lawn mowers?

How much time does a lawn mower spend being used and how much does it just clutter up your shed? What about bulky ladders? The list is huge, if you want it to be. A simple website can keep track of who owns tools, who borrowed them, when and when due back – and the owner can have the right to recall a tool at anytime they need. repairs are paid for.

We don’t need to pay tool hire firms all the time – and anyway, that can involve a journey into town to collect, when there will be neighbours nearer with sheds full of under used stuff. Start to share and help each other out! Reduce your personal clutter and consumption. Get quality tools that will last, instead of cheap plastic rubbish!

Don’t look at the problems – look at the solutions – and the world will be changed. Start small, in local groups. Next thing you know, your neighbours will be helping you out. If you think everyone wants to use your tools at the same time – I say that is the making of a community and a picnic or barbeque. In reality, I bet your tools are not doing much at all.

Who is with me on this?

News update – I have just discovered The Freeconomy Community website which is doing exactly this, go to www.justfortheloveofit.org and join now and start a local group! Let me know if you are in my area.

And whilst I am on the subject of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – the old mantra of the environmental movement which spawned sites like Freecycle and Freeuseit, and I suppose they led to Freeconomy, (plus the Virtual tag giving us vskips, etc) … the drive towards Zero Waste means more “re”s need to become popular:

• restore
• repair
• renovate
• reclaim
• recreate
• recover
  

All that “stuff” has got to be found good uses – and that is going to require creativity, exactly that which has been degraded (if not lost) by the consumerist capitalism of this affluenza diseased society. Look to the arts, the odd-balls and the favelas of poverty to see lateral thinking at work.

And a weed is not a weed – if it is useful (edible, fibre, medicine, dye etc), maybe even beautiful and prefers growing where your imported and pampered plants struggle (aided by herbicides to kill the “weed” and plump up the profits of Monsanto, et al … let the natural (local) plant grow! Nettles, thistles, dock weed? OK – this is going to be another blog, on wild foods, and there I’ll write about salmonberry and Knotweed, rabbits and squirrels. Not now.

* Picture courtesy of GregPC

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The most eco-friendly house is the one where Mr Frugal lives (me). A re-used, rented, repaired house where energy is eeked out with miserly care, and I dress properly.

***

Environmental action at home – the challenge and the fun!

A couple of good blog posts to watch, for everyone trying to take action in their own lives, for planet, people and pocket:

• http://myzerowaste.com/
• http://noimpactman.typepad.com/

If you find these interesting, and have not seen my posts, you might like to read a few where I have family games and challenges to try out similar ideas – and how to make it fun, not a sacrifice. Many of us are working on these issues – it is good to be aware of some of you. Orkney has it’s own Zero Waste project – for the whole population (19,000) of the Orkney Islands, in Scotland.

What, no pictures?

Ethical Web Design, and SEO – Is it possible and to Do Good?

Everyone it seems is clamoring to be top of the search engine rankings at all costs, even paying. Search engine optimization has become the new alchemy – with people losing sight of “why“. This is big business but it serves no customer or web user to find results cluttered with spurious and corporate results. We want good, honest traders offering what we want. And they want good, honest customers.

Bars on the windows

“Ever notice how Olympic athletes make their actions look almost effortless? That’s what your website needs to do. It needs to delight your future clients. Effortlessly.” – Rachel DuBois DoGood-Design

If you have a website – here are some thoughts of mine, some tips you could say, about what websites could look like, and how to be honest, have beautiful websites, and not play the game of smoke and mirrors that search engine optimization (SEO) has become.

Yes, we want people viewing our blogs and websites – and search engines are one of the main ways real people will find them. But we want quality not quantity. And you have to ask yourself why are you in business in the first place? Is it just to make money, at all costs? Or have you become aware of how our lives are ruled by the economy, how we feel empty, and how the planet is in crisis because of all the pollution caused by human over consumption? If the latter, then you are possibly seeking a way forward, a way to balance work with life, trading with ethics, time spent on the computer with time spent playing with your children.

I think, now is the time to readdress why we are working, how we want to work, what we need from it (not just money but a challenge, stimulation, learning, meeting like-minded people, etc).

Websites have got to be part of that as they are our window onto the world. So maybe it is not so important to sacrifice our lives to the alter of SEO and instead think about what our ideal customers look like, what they actually want to know and how best you can arrange your store to help them. Take pride in your place, as a local shopkeeper used to do, before the days as giant, soul-less super markets and generic stores.

Are we becoming just another bland store or website as we focus only on SEO – and what does that say about us? – what message is that giving the really nice people who are looking for your ’store’ but want a personal experience and to know who they are dealing with? That’s what I want. Maybe you do to? Maybe we are just tired of crappy service from underpaid and under motivated staff, products that do not last and frustrating automated call centres, help desks that do not help – websites that do not let you find the information you so dearly want – because they are so focused upon text for spiders, crawlers or algorithms and other such voodoo magic.

How about we take some pride in our work and thus in our websites? Lets look at the graphic design, the usability, who our customers are and what they most want to know. Lets keep them clean, tidy, simple and honest – just like the best stores are – no gimmicks, cheap tricks, flashing adverts or other eye burning bright lights. Lets have websites that have personality – your personality – and be honest, helpful and reflecting who you are, what you do and how this will make the world a better place.

Have a look at the honest and beautiful Do Good Design by Rachel DuBois.

Water – another commodity – pay or go thirsty?

It will not be long before we in the affluent countries have to pay for water – and some day air no doubt. It will be illegal to get water for free, from the sky or river because someone will “own” it and you will have to buy it. We pay now for water supply - but this story will get much worse, gradually.

Is this man stealing water?

Long ago people could find food, water, shelter materials, tools , medicines and all sorts of things, in nature. This perfect time is described disparagingly as ‘hunter-gathering’. Some tribes still live this way, happily, until a logging company cuts down the forest or evicts them – make way for “progress”, for money making. See Survival International.

Such a period in pre-history may well be what is referred to by the story of the garden of Eden, in the Bible. Then came the “Neolithic Revolution” – farming and settling. Man was “cast out” from this idylic time of plenty and free time and became shackled to the land, a servant to food supply. The best soils would be highly prized. Soon after came the discovery of discrete pockets of special materials – metal ores. These became hugely desirable and thus began competition and fighting for land.

The powerful take control of the resources and control – then sell to the rest of humanity. Nowadays oil is a good example. Soon water too. We started to get money, slaves, capitalist economies, and now global corporations, wars, cities, global warming. Thanks. We are so used to it we take it as a fact of life.

So ordinary people began to lose access to foods but many still farmed and gathered and got on with their lives while the Kings feuded.

Then came a land grab – the Enclosures Act UK – people lost access to huge areas of previously open / common land. It was effectively stolen from them, by force. Huge estates were owned by a few and people were forced to pay taxes to their over lords and tithes to the church – another big land owner and power block.

Not only had they lost their access to enough land to live, they had to pay part of their production and be homeless if they couldn’t. So they might lose another basic human right – shelter.

In Scotland there is still ownership of massive land masses by private owners – the rump of the feudal system and tenants must pay rents and have far less security. The memory of the ruthless Highland Clearances is still vivid in many people’s minds – if in Scotland , visit Croick Church for a poignant look at how god fearing, literate folk were evicted, confused as to how their over lords could abuse them like this?

So, now that we have to pay for food, excepting a few who can produce some on the land they own – the majority are dependent upon markets – or starve. Those people “outside society” who travel and thus do not pay rent – again the Scottish travellers, gypsies, new age travellers – have been forced to settle down, vilified and become figures of hate or mistrust. Or we have the image of a tramp.

The Industrial Revolution, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, drove the population of first Britain, then Europe and soon the world into paid labour subsistence, causing major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, and transportation having a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions in Britain. They had no choice.

We are starting to get a picture here – why we have to work – to pay the rent – to pay for food – essentials for life, not luxuries like tv’s or books. Some people do not have to work, though they might to relieve boredom or to satisfy an urge. These people either own land or so much money they do not need to do anything to pay for subsistence / living – they can charge you rent – they can buy your labour. And make a profit.

Next comes the further controlling of food – the patenting of seeds – the use of our “laws” to enforce this and thus make it illegal to hold back some seed from your harvest for the following years planting – this which has been the very foundation of good farming right back to the Neolithic Revolution, over 8,000 years ago, in Mesopotamia and the Golden crescent. Thanks to Monsanto and other giant powers, you have to buy even the grain – and the pesticides they are genetically dependent upon to survive – you still have to sweat and harvest before you sell … you take all the risk of crop failure though.

So what is next? – after losing the basic human right to land, shelter, food, medicines – helped by eradicating those who held the knowledge about herbal lore – wise women, often better known as witches by the church-men who feared their knowledge and respect amongst a population needing controlling: Water of course!

Now they really have you by the throat. You see, you can go for months without food before you starve – you can get by without shelter – but without clean drinking water you die – quickly – in 2-3 days. You may not be in prison but you are like a zoo animal, trapped in an economic reality – a matrix.

It is coming – I refer you to this blog about water laws in Colorado State, New Mexico maybe too, where it is illegal to collect rain water falling on your land, your roof, and it is illegal to use washing water to water your plants – read the blog: http://www.groovygreen.com

Before we get too bloated with injustice though – lets not forget that millions of people – fellow humans – die each year because of no access to clean drinking water. They walk miles – they drink contaminated water – they contract diarrhea and water born diseases – every day. They are not watering their lawns, washing clothes or flushing toilets with good clean drinkable water – like we do! They die quietly.

Nearly 2 million people die each year due to waterborne-related disease (90% of which are children under the age of 5). Some claim it is 2.2 million a year – SunWater.

Check out Water Aid – “help bring water to the 1.1 billion people worldwide who have no access to safe drinking water. – 13 March 2008

Global Missions say 25,000 people die every day – from lack of clean water.

UNICEF say 4000 children die every day, because they simply don’t have access to an adequate supply of clean water. “Clean water is an inviolable right, not a privilege,” – UNICEF.

Water Supply Statistics and Facts

I should just repeat the statement – millions of people die each year- just because they cannot get clean water. That is sick. A million is 1,000,000. A lot of dead bodies – children with great brains, ideas, laughter and amazing muscles – works of art – the pinnacle of evolution.

For ‘us‘ the loss of water rights is gradual, over generations maybe, so you do not notice, do not care. We have access to water and we do not fear losing this so we do not fight for the erosion of our basic human rights – they just ebb away, bit by bit, like sand castle washed away by the tide – crumbling.

Does it seem ridiculous to you that anyone should expect free water, free food, free shelter? Then that shows how far humans have come – because once upon a time we used to have that and we lost it. It was taken away. (Free as in no monetary cost, though a lot of labour may be involved, usually is).

We can afford many things – massive military campaigns and weapons arsenals, exploration of space, sports-star wage bills, computers that last a year, new clothes every few months – enough calories to make us obese and then the gym machines to burn it off – or the complex technology to repair the damage, take out broken hearts, abused livers or just enlarge breasts, fatten lips, move fat.

We borrow the money then work to pay it off - or rather just stay afloat and service the debt – and it is making us miserable. What a life – work work work. Hell. The people living back in the Neolithic only needed to work 3 days a week. The rest they played, created, invented. Hence us being here.

That was before we over fished the seas, cut down all the forests, salted the lakes and dried up the aquifers. Melting the ice caps took talent though – we really should be proud of our latest folly. Changing the planet’s atmosphere – which we need to live – that is either brave or very stupid – a bit like a scientist experimenting on her own body. “Oh, so that is what a heart looks like? ….” or our final words cold be: “Oh, so that is what the atmosphere was for? …”

Where are we at? We work, to be paid, to buy stuff. We work to buy not just luxuries and all the rubbish that is polluting the planet – all the energy that is released to move it all around – all the carbon, the methane – we also have to work to live. To have a shelter, safety, food – and now water.

How long the air? Well much of that is already polluted, causing asthma, sickness, death. But when will we have to pay for the air we breathe? The odds are we will be well dead before it happens – but our children, if they can survive the heat, the drought and the disease – I bet some State or Federal Law will enforce some corporation’s insistence that we must pay – because it is purifying the air we need – they will sell bottles of air and our offices, homes and cars will be oxygenated capsules – whilst outside stinks. The pieces are in place – water coolers, bottled water, air conditioning. You watch how you become dependent upon those. A thirsty man will pay a fortune for a drink – with his freedom and his soul. Beware.

Fight laws banning you from accessing water. Fight, or lose it.

“Clean water is an inviolable right, not a privilege,” – UNICEF

Maybe these people will some day fall foul of a law saying you cannot gather rainwater?