I would like to propose a new idea.

Let’s start a movement (petition wise or something) that raises votes to abolish the arms industry. Completely shut it down, I mean, you can’t wage war if there’s no weapons to do so with, and if you still want to, you can go at each other with sticks and knifes or something, no longer bothering innocent people with your bullocks.

The idea to push governments to shut down the investment in weapons and closing down the military seems reasonably impossible and –no doubt, people’ll start calling me a short-sighted idealist again. Then first of I’d like to point them to the philosophical argument of being an idealist (because I agree, I am one, yet not a short-sighted one), which would be idealism is; the philosophical theory that maintains that the ultimate nature of reality is based on mind or ideas.

-So, if a realist would come to me and argue of safety, I’d challenge him or her to quantify safety as an independent entity. Safety is a psychological entity that only exists in ideas or mind. I assure you that by abolishing the weapons industry we will be ‘safer’ as there are lesser external threads on the internal concept of safety. So that’s point one, point two would be that the world is more and more connected, and more and more people seem willing to overcome nationality, background, or ‘cultural heritage’ in favour of collaborating, discussing and creating a world that is ‘one’. Making it increasingly viable to –well, just give it a try. Governments are to be (especially in countries that claim to be democratic) subject to the people, and this would be an interesting chance to see whether or not we truly do live in a democracy.

Who’s with me?

Join the facebook group please.

The thing is, I want to be ‘for’ things. I want to say yes, I want to focus my energy on constructive matters, not destructive. And, knowing the history of protest around ‘global gatherings’, they’re not so constructive. Of course the feeling of unity amongst those who come there to voice the need for stronger measures on the reduction of carbon emissions, the need for a new paradigm in terms of our energy supply in general, and new policies when it comes to the way we interact with ‘Mother Nature’, is one tempting me to go. Yet, I feel its not all. With the ones that dictate the global political debate (US) likely not to even be there, it will be a facade of incompetence.

I truly believe that, within the current economic system (that despite the opportunity that has been around in the last years, still stands and is enforced by governments to keep it the way it is) we would be better of (and closer to change) if we’d focus our energy on the companies that actually create the pollution and waste. Let’s urge them to make a change, not simply because it’s something we think they should do; but more so because it makes more business sense in general.

See, looking at others to take responsibility is something we have been doing for years and years. Businesses look at the law and look for loopholes. This has been the case since the start of business and business law. When businesses look at their turnover, and see change, they move.

Carrotmob is an initiative that has shown this.

“Buy Nothing Day” (a facebook initiated ‘day’) is another one.

By keeping our focus on the government that are dependent on business for their income we will not likely see the change we would like to see. Yet, we need them in order to get the ‘wholesome’ effect.

We are stuck in a web of economic numbers, we are all, whether we like it or not, dependent on this web for our livelihood. So though we might not agree with it, we will have to either completely dissolve the current system (to which I have little hope, nor do I think it will benefit increasing equality amongst the people of the world) or we need to get ourselves together, pick the system apart and reshape it the way we would like to see it. If we want to get rid of corporate influence in our society, we will have to group ourselves, create platforms upon which individuals are enabled to work in a cell-based structure, if we want companies to be environmentally sustainable, let’s ‘reward’ those who are and disregard those who are not, and most of all, let’s stay away from negativity. And if we want our energy supply to be fully sustainable, let’s do so by voting ‘green’ into parliaments, the energy issue has to be resolved from two sides.

In Copenhagen, having lived there, we will see a huge amount of ‘riot-police’, these kind men and women will be pulled in from all over the country and are not properly trained to ‘control’ huge crowds. This means they will be afraid once the people start buzzing, atmosphere get a little grim (which is also not very smart) and they will charge. This will be widely read in mainstream media and thus will ‘once more’ show that anti-globalists, anarchists, environmental protesters and however else we are being catagorised, are a bunch of aggressors that only scream about change and do not wish it to be constructive.

That sucks, because I know for a fact that we do want it to be constructive, we simply need to organise ourselves, form collectives, create platforms and be patient. It took the world 150 years to organise the world the way it is currently organised, and if we want to change it, lets do so cell-based, de-centralised and thought-through.

Peace and love.

We’ve all heard about the Millennium Development Goals of the UN. It so happens, I’m not a big fan of institutions such as the UN. Especially not when, though it is a ‘voluntary’ organisation for countries to join, and establish somewhat of a ‘world-government’ type deal (or so is my interpretation), it’s regarded as a ‘second-choice’ in terms of political decision time. (remember the Iraq War?)

Anyway, the UN also has some good ideas. They have, in the years running up to 2000, decided to form a set of goals that are for the betterment of mankind in general (eradication of poverty / ensure environmental sustainability / achieve universal primary education / promote gender equality and empower women, for example). This, I find, is a ‘good’ thing, ‘we’ (Westerners) ought to break through the inequality we find in our world which is, for a good deal, maintained through Western behavioural patterns. So; 1-up for the UN.

Now, despite the good efforts, Ban-Ki-Moon, the tribal chief of the UN, has warned the people of the world that because of the economic crisis the goals are under pressure (see the full report here). Yeah. Right. The eradication of poverty for instance, in 15 years, can indeed be done, but the simple fact of the matter is that as long as western companies (and thus governments) still make money on this form of inequality, this will not be achieved easily (remember the ‘secondary choice’-thing). Same with the gender equality idea. This is not even achieved in ‘developed’ countries. Next to that there’s this counter movement of ‘new-feminism’ in which gender equality became some sort of chauvinistic idea, but I’ll leave that to your own judgment. In my opinion men and women are not equal, yet, should be given equal rights and men and women should be judged on their individual qualities when it comes to whatever it is you’d like to judge them on. Let’s be happy men and woman are not equal, it would be a monotonous world.

As it is, maybe we should look around and see what small initiatives are doing, and how you and I as individuals could support those initiatives. In this case, for instance, by supporting them in an effort to win an award where UN money is given away, in name of the Millennium Awards. (Because like it or not, the money will go somewhere anyway.) And I’ve got just the NGO to do that for!

As part of ‘doing my part’ I’ve joined Satara to assist in the further development of their strategy, communication and business-wise. Satara works on Ghandi’s philosophy “We need to be the change we wish to see.” We’re currently working on a spring/summer 2010 collection, produced in India, empowering women that are manufacturing the collection (by hand). We do this through paying honest wages, education and setting up a more secure social system. Satara’s profit is re-invested in a local education project in order to stimulate and enable local parents to send their kids to school instead of being forced to be dependent on their income to feed the family. (read the whole story here)

This is Moniek van Erven, telling you the story of Satara;

You can help out by voting for Satara both on- and offline;

Vote online via the following link.

Or via text-message;

Text ‘nhd satara’ to 4999 (in the Netherlands) (remember the single space between nhd & satara)

You can find more on the UN Millennium Awards here (Dutch) and here (English).

As it is, this was shameless self-promotion, but it’s for a good cause, hope you’ll help us out! Thanks in advance.

Love and Peace.

The idea of our wasteful behaviour was brought to my attention (once more) by a (new) friend of mine, who was talking about a documentary about how big corporations don’t wish to sell their products under a certain price, in order to maintain the year-long efforts in building up a reputation that would justify profits margins of 70-190%. It happens to be the case that I wrote a thesis on the relationship between a company’s reputation and it’s general ‘corporate social responsibility’. And I can’t help but feel the hope sink towards the bottom of my being, when big corporations such as Samsung (here/here examples of how they are ‘good citizens’) for instance, seem to think that throwing money around in a seemingly altruistic fashion will cover their ‘efforts to maintain a price worthy reputation’. (or something of that kind, I am not entirely sure how to name this kind of behaviour)

These efforts consist of systematically wasting brand new products that are not sold and thus dumped, dissembled and partially burned. We see DVD players, HD TV’s and MP3 players go down in price and most people get happy, as it is now available for a bigger public. Yet, for the corporations that manufacture these products (being ‘stock-market-companies’), these kind of ‘free-market’ dynamics create a problem. A reputation problem. The products that are sold under the general price-level of the company will give the brand a ‘bad name’ or so it the thought. But destroying the products, where we ‘the people’ don’t see or hear anything about it, will only show up in the books, somewhere deep and buried.

She also talked about fashion-labels ‘un-stitching’ their labels and shipping their clothing off to ‘development-countries’. This I see as somewhat of an attempt to do something about the unequal dynamics in our world, not too bad. But also, here we again, talk about a matter driven by the fear of ‘losing face’, but mostly, bad business-strategy. If, apparently your product is not good enough to sell your stock (or mis-priced, mis targetted or whatever), perhaps you should thing about what and how you produce, how you market it, and how you price it.

But I’m drifting off.

Apples.

Do you eat the center part of an apple? If not, why not? Have you ever tried, or do you simply don’t eat the center part of an apple because you were taught to do so? (when mum was still citting the apples for you and gave them to you in one of those brightly coloured bowls, yesh, we’ve all been there) Just think about it. Why would you not eat the center part of an apple, it’s tasty, it’s healthy, and ehm, it gives eating an apple yet ANOTHER dimension. It’s great.

To illustrate what you could do to stop the wastefulness of our Western being. I don’t want to ask people to simply start ignoring red-lights when you think it to be safe you see. It’s in the little things, and starts with yourself. Anyway, I’m off eating an apple.

Love and peace.

As I understand it, banks have been the major factor in destabilising the current world economy. This, of course, cannot have been done without the help of our dear governments, in terms of law and regulation of this world economy of ours, yet, the lobby and money thrown at them (the government), is, no doubt, a circumstance to be taken into account. From what I heard, Goldman Sachs was one of the financial institutions that was under a lot of pressure and almost went bankrupt, hence they received a ($10 billion) bailout (because the system is never wrong, it’s ‘the market’ that suffers from global tendencies that arise out of nothing). Than, they were among one of the first to repay this ‘bail-out’. One could argue, look at those good guys, they want to ride the bicycle without side-wheels. Yes, one could indeed say this. One could also argue, that perhaps, they feared the government looking over their shoulder and saying, “Ehm, perhaps you guys should change your ways”, perhaps. Who knows what they were thinking, I sure don’t.

What I do know, is that I find it very interesting that in a time like this a bank, that was so severely hit by the economic turmoil of the last year-and-a-half, can make a $2.7 billion profit, and before that, had already decided to set aside $11.4 billion, for salaries and bonuses, adding up to $386.400,- on average for every employee, secretaries included (how sweet, but what about the cleaners?). What I also know is that, for me, this whole spectacle brings forth a funny feeling in my tummy.

The thing is, not so much that is seems to happen, cause well, it does. The thing to me, more so, is the fact that it happens, and the lack of response from the world. It is all just accepted, as if it is normal. The money, according to David Vinair, came from “risks taken in turbulent markets and speculation in stocks and currency” besides that, “there is less competition”. (There’s that funny feeling again) I mean, I’m not doing business with the kind people of Goldman Sachs, because well, I barely have money to start with, yet, my mind feels slightly numb at reading this kind of news, and the powerful institutions we have looking out for our well-being (yes, I mean governments), seem to sit back and take it, because their power only goes to a certain point.

Fair enough.

Oh wait, no, it’s not that fair. Small business-owners go bankrupt, starters on the housing-markets can’t get mortgages because banks are sitting on their money, people loose their jobs and people who had a mortgage are now increasingly finding trouble to repay the money and keep their house.

Can anyone tell me why we accept this? I’m lost.

Peace and love.

The more or less part is based on the fact I’d like to address travel. Because I’m traveling to India in, ehm, 17 hours. After I had finished my thesis (according to me, not my coordinator), I was stoked and annoyed with the fact (very dualist I am aware), and decided to get out of the country for a while, as it has been a very intense last 10 months. I’ll leave out the details, you’ll just have to believe me. (BTW, really stoked about the visual identity of Cradle of Design I received just now, looks great and will be ‘alive’ August)

Alright, travel.

The thing is, I’m quite surprised about the reactions people have been giving me about ‘just leaving’. A selection; “Wow, you’re nuts” (that’s not a very original one though, and not necessarily concerning the travel part), “How do you afford that?”, “I wish I could do that”. I think you can, both afford it, and do it (Yes we can type deal, but than for real).

First of all, it doesn’t have to be all that expensive; put some time in finding a ticket. I found a ticket for 420,- euro’s two-way. (here) It took me 3 days and the great help of Femke, but still. Than, I became a member of an organisation called WWOOF which is an NGO that enables us Western kids to really engage in ‘cultural understanding’. You work on an organic farm in a local, small community, 5 hours a day, in exchange for food and a spot to sleep. This ‘work’ ranges from building sheds, milking cows, teaching kids English, sweeping the place, cooking or planting seeds. It gives you the opportunity to get a taste of the local community and learn about organic agriculture (no use of chemicals and/or pesticides). Next to that the people (seem to be) (are) very willing to teach you things such as yoga and/or meditation, local cuisine, language and culture.

The thing is, besides that it’s very cheap travel, it also helps you to not just ‘do’ a country (the typical backpacker-attitude where we all just gather on the other side of the world and get wasted on both alcohol and hallucinates (don’t get me wrong, nothing wrong with that, but you can do at home too) but really visit a country and gives you an opening into a culture in order to ‘live’ it (although for a very short time). (articles on ‘vagabond-travel’ here & here)

Next to that, the I wish I could, is, for me anyway, just an excuse. I’ve once learned, at some point, that if something scares the living shit out of you, it’s probably because you haven’t got a clue what to expect and it’s easier to just let it sit there in your mind and move along the steady path of current life. In my opinion, this results in people (I’ve met loads of them and so have you I guess), saying, oh yeah, but you’re young, easy life, etc. Well, sure, I am young, sure, I have an easy life, but I’m also building a company, I’ve also graduated, I’ve also done loads of network building in the last months, some projects etc. ect. It’s not an excuse not to do other stuff. If you feel like leaving for a while, do it. Life is too short to have to say; “Oh, I wish I had done this, or that.” It’s a choice, sure, but well, if you feel you ought to do something, go f&%^* do it. The only time is now and if you have the opportunity, grab it. Don’t be afraid of things you don’t know, all learning comes with pains and gains, and scary things are most likely the ones that’ll teach you most.

I think we can all agree on the idea of life being a journey, and I found this quote from Vonnegut the other day;

“Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.”

Now, I don’t necessarily believe in the monotheistic view upon God or anything (more so that it is all one, including all of us, which in itself is monotheistic again, circle, circle, let’s talk about that some other time), but the opportunities arising in our lives are too often past by and left alone, which is a bloody shame.

For now, I wish you all love and peace, hope to see you upon return, take it easy.

A bit opportunistic perhaps, but I felt like writing something on the subject of my thesis, so I did. The thesis is in its final stages and consists of a range of interviews with; David Fellah, Herbert van Hoogdalem, Dan Germain, Mikal Hallstrup and last, but surely not least, Sir Richard Branson. Also, a survey with 150 respondents, loads of literature review and the text here would, I think, be classified as my conclusions without the sources. Hope you enjoy it.

Throughout the process of compiling the thesis I came across several often returning ‘tag-words’ if you wish. One of them; ethics, others; transparency, genuine behaviour and long-term strategy. These four ‘drivers’ so to say, are very important in implementing a CSR strategy. In my personal opinion, Dan Germain put it very well, CSR is not a strategy, it is part of the DNA of a company. Yet, I would like to say, it is not the DNA of the company, it is the DNA of the people behind the company.

The most important part, when it comes to social behaviour, is that it needs to be true, the truthfulness, of CSR, no matter what it’s business or communication consequences, is vital in even considering implementing a strategy as such. Although currently CSR is becoming somewhat of a ‘trendy thing to be in’ and a popular thing to implement, in the base, it should be a feeling of people who control the larger sums of money in this world, to do ‘something good’. This, in times of declining world economies, based on unclear, confusing financial constructs, leaving, hardworking, honest people bankrupt, job- and homeless, is a message received with a heartfelt cheer by activists, political left and right-wingers, consumers and non-consumers.

This, as touched upon earlier (in the thesis that is), is also the risk. In times of superficial entertainment, de-humanised wars (on the Western side of the equation), increased negative outlooks on world economy, the return of ‘pirates’ in our daily news and the continued callings of the ruling western spiritual leader- the Pope, to not use condoms in Africa, news, which is ‘true, ‘good’ or ‘positive’ is received with great enthusiasm and appreciation, without looking much further into the matter.

Companies have a responsibility to, if they choose to, be truthful, transparent and ‘in for the long run’, when it comes to Corporate Social Responsibility. The interesting conclusion I came to, through talking to the ‘business-leaders’ for this thesis, is that most of them claimed companies have more ‘power’ to instigate change than governments do. This, I personally believe to be true, it is also interesting to see the response coming back in the questionnaire, in which the respondents show an obvious ‘pro’ corporate responsibility and are willing to pay more, with money being the ruling paradigm in our world, I find this a very interesting development. This also indicates, I believe, a system change, in which companies are going to be ‘platform creators’ in which civilians are to participate, thereby, together, creating a world of which one can be proud.

The ‘change in the system’ cannot be ‘announced’ with any light concern to the ruling ideas that are here now, and therefore, I found a nice and ‘simple’ illustration to accompany it, I believe (based upon the 6 product-phases Eger has once proposed).

When we look at the process of becoming who we are today we, as a species, have had a long journey (and still a long way to go?). When we first got up on our two hind legs (homo erectus), we had to start evolving ourselves in several ways, in a physical way, which lead to the emergence of the species of homo sapiens (Performance). After that we started to optimise our bodily functions that lead to increasing mental development (Optimisation). Through that optimisation we began to develop skills other homo sapiens had not (itemisation). Through that we were lead to segmentation by the skills we had attained, worker class, bourgeoisie and royal (segmentation). When this wasn’t enough anymore we started to individualise which lead to the last couple of decades of the self (individualisation). Which brings us to where we are now. Awareness.

As such, I believe, we humans are increasingly ‘aware’ of what is happening around us, mind me, we are merely at the beginning of this stage, but as seen in (and enabled by) the increase of communication means we have at our disposal, internet ‘activism’, for instance, is an increasingly important mean to people who wish to ‘change the world’ and, even in mainstream news gathering, becoming a force to be reckoned with.

If a company or brand chooses to indulge itself into a strategy that addresses social behaviour of the company itself, it needs to be heartfelt, I would even say, they should not even want to communicate it. Although this, especially coming from a communication student, is perhaps not the most ‘financially profitable’ way of going about it, surely would indicate it’s sincerity.

The core beliefs of wanting to be a ‘Good Global Citizen’ should come from within a company, otherwise they cannot be lived, and therefore they will, most likely at some point, fail to be responsible, resulting in a massive spanking. Corporate Social Responsibility can be a very useful and profitable addition to a company strategy, what is vital it to realise how much you will lose if you do not treat a strategy as such with honesty, sincerity and loyalty, it is a long-term, costly and hard process and one not to be taken lightly.

The fact that people are dying due to this evolved ‘flu’ is, obviously, very sad. Yet, it is also so incredibly clear that we, as humans, are the single reason for this to happen. With our ‘continuous growth’ paradigm, a mostly western issue, we have created ourselves the need to keep growing, otherwise we would ‘stagnate’. But what exactly would stagnate? Human satisfaction of the current moment? Self-development? The planet?

No. I don’t think so.

A striking illustration of our misconduct, I find, is the existence of ‘mega-farms’. These farms sometimes ‘house’ up to 10.000 cows, who do not get any ‘outdoor-activity’ or ‘raise’ chickens in 40 days (from chick to full-grown chicken), which would, from a natural point of view, normally would take between 90-110 days. The idea is that a chicken that grows twice as fast, will be replaced by a new chicken that can than again, be sold, thus, making twice the money you would with a normal chicken. Good thinking, right?

Ehm.

Well, in a way, sure, we live in a society that is based upon economic continuity and growth, thus having a turnover that goes against organic development seem reasonably feasible. The only problem is, it comes at a cost. The ‘normal’ chicken we eat is pumped with hormones stimulating growth, these hormones, of which the use is denied by the USDA (here), are implemented not only in the animals, but also in the humans that eat them. This, just the same as eating veggies that are sprayed with chemicals, or soil in which they grow is fertilized with non-natural products to limit the degeneration of the soil because of exhaustion, is simply not beneficial for human bodies.

The consequences of our ‘waging war upon the planet’ (argument put forward by Daniel Quinn in his book Ishmael), we can see all around us. Rapid development of obesity as a ‘decease’ (come on…), 2 in 4 children in the UK is now officially diagnosed with overweight, the staggering idea that Coca Cola in some countries is cheaper than water, (an interesting article I found recently about the effects of Coca Cola upon the human body, here), the rise of several animal viruses within the last 5 years (Mad-Cow-decease, Bird-flue, Pork-plague) and now the ones that are potentially also threatening human life; SARS, Swine Flue and it wouldn’t surprise me we’ll be facing another one, but one that actually does kill more than the 903 confirmed cases worldwide (4-5-2009). I mean, on a daily base there are still 15,000 children dying of diarrhea due to the lack of clean drinking water.

I’m sorry I just can’t get worked up about this ‘possible pandemic’. Except for the idea that it is so deeply rooted in our societies, “You are what you eat” type deal, this does worry me, because how to stop something when when a society is based upon the principle that most things and problems are never something directly associated with people themselves but every problem is faced with an attitude in which people say “well, but what can I do about it?”

Well, first of all think about what you eat, your own eating patterns have enormous impact upon, among others, environment, animal ‘guardianship’, social structures (fair trade, all that) and most directly, your own health (you care about that I assume).

Next to that you can ask your local supermarket to actually offer food that has been produced within ‘sustainable boundaries’ and with respect towards the animals we use as food.

So to start, my supermarket is Albert Heijn, if you wish to ask them to elevate the standards of their ‘footprint’ go here, I’ve prepared a text for you (in Dutch) if you don’t feel like typing.

Geachte heer/mevrouw,

Ik wil op deze manier aandacht vragen voor de, in mijn ogen, vreemde verdeling van ‘biologisch voedsel’ en ‘normaal voedsel’ binnen uw assortiment. Daarnaast is de prijsstelling van het gezondere en sociaal ‘eerlijkere’ (ook tegenover dieren) ten opzichte van ‘het doorsnee voedsel’, mijns inziens, contra-productief voor het stimuleren van een gezondere levensstandaard van uw klanten (waar u met uw “Gezonde Keuze” producten wel de indruk wekt dat dit een interessepunt van uw bedrijf is), als wel positief voor het in stand houden van de zogenaamde ‘megafarms’ die op vele manieren geen boodschap hebben aan dierenwelzijn of de milieutechnische consequenties die het runnen van een boerderij als deze heeft.

Ik begrijp dat u een beurs genoteerd bedrijf bent en als zodanig winst dient te maken om de aandeelhouders gelukkig te houden, alsmede ‘de Holding’. Maar, mijns inziens, de toekomst van zowel onze planeet, als onze maatschappij heeft bedrijven als u nodig om de huidige omslag te maken die we nodig hebben om als planeet gezond en zonder ons te hoeven schamen voor ons gedrag ten opzichte van andere diersoorten de toekomst in te helpen.

Hopende in de nabije toekomst een verandering in uw strategie ten opzichte van voedsel verstrekking tegemoed te mogen zien, wens ik u alle goeds.

Hoogachtend,

(Your name)

Well, long story, hope you understand my point though. And please take this little action in order to actively contribute to a ‘better future’ for planet, humanity and animals.

Love & Peace,

Len

I can’t say I have lost that sympathy for people that call themselves Pirates, now I am supposedly somewhat educated and ‘grown-up’ (although I do deny the latter).

And pirates are hot news, after Johnny Depp’s performance in the 3-piece Pirates of the Caribbean, people got the hots for pirates, with dress-up parties, Facebook themes, pirate language sprouting out of mouths you would not expects it to sprout from. But now, the the imperialists have started killing pirates again, and I think we’re on the verge of something interesting, in two ways.

The first group of pirates I’m addressing here are the ones in Somalia (and greater east coast of Africa). The recent taking hostage of several ‘Westerners’ and their ships, has led to increased (military) presence of western countries in one of the most impoverished countries in the World. (Call for improvement from within Somalia by Abdi-Noor Hadji Mohammed & a report by WorldVision (UK-based organisation).

The current ‘road of violence’ of these former fishermen (because that is what they are), comes from a history of ‘interesting’ developments. As most of you know, I think, we Westerners like out fish for dinner (and lunch). We have the luxury of choice when it comes to food, which is a different story for the fishermen in Somalia. After decades of internal war, Somalia sees itself faced with a collapsing local economy, polluted waters (more on that in a bit) and as a result, more violence (vicious circle?).

So, internal wars, why bother ‘our’ transport and fishing boats with that? Ehm, well, for instance, having Africa’s largest coastal line, means fishing is one of the countries biggest economical inputs. And fishing, with the ‘developed’ countries having over-fished their own waters, is something that results into fish, and we like our tuna sandwich and sashimi, so we go and get it. In the last decade, the amount of countries exploiting the internal dismal in Somalia and fishing in ‘their’ waters, is large. (article) The list includes countries such as China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Honduras, India, Italy and Japan. This, to me, sounds slightly ‘off’ as a country so dependent on fishing for it’s food-supply, should be given the opportunity to use it’s own resources to the fullest and not be raped by countries that, through their own wrong-doing, have a greater need for our sea’s creatures.

That’s one part of the story, the other is that there seem to be an increased number of deaths through poisoning in Somalia. Allegedly, this is caused by illegal and ‘legal’ (nuclear) waste dumping in the coastal waters of Somalia. There is a lot of ‘proof’ for this (here, here and here). The problem with these allocations is that nobody admits the dumps, almost nobody gives them as background information when it comes to reporting on the current ‘pirate-violence’ (please note that the Somali pirates have so far not killed a single person in taking them hostage, although this might soon change).

It might be an idea for us ‘little-people’ to simply ignore the mass-media hysteria that is about to break loose (mark my words, as soon as they killed a Westerner it’s going to be a big one), think twice about the fish you buy (try to eat locally caught fish, you will spare yourself the ethical question of whether you are eating the flesh of the ribs of a starving nation, AND (this is a popular one I’m sure) you help your local economy, and we all know we ‘need’ it)

By getting these pieces of information ‘out there’ I hope people will take the news of ‘piracy’ towards ‘our’ boats with a grain of salt, this is a problem created by the West and, as with a lot of things, attempted to be fixed by brutal force, murder and economic suffocation. With the increased accessibility of information from within a country, we ‘the little people’ have a chance to ignore the ever increasing preset paradigm that is created for us by our governments.. (and not in a ‘conspiracy kind of way but simply because ‘political agenda’s are to be met and continued no matter what (look at Afghanistan, or the Israel-Palestine conflict)) The fact is humanity has only one protector, and that is human behaviour. At the point where we keep buying into the supposed crimes of people that are, and have been, exploited in benefit of (Western) economic growth, we will at some point be unable to stop the ‘us’ & ‘them’ paradigm and I think will dwindle in the wind, sooner or later. It is simple, we are all one part of this planet, despite colour, race, geographical location or belief.

To end on a ‘grassroots’ note, this is what Somali-Canadian K’naan, who is AlterNet’s poet, rapper, and musician, has to say on the subject.

“It is time that the world gave the Somali people some assurance that these Western illegal activities will end, if our pirates are to seize their operations. We do not want the EU and NATO serving as a shield for these nuclear waste-dumping hoodlums. It seems to me that this new modern crisis is a question of justice, but also a question of whose justice. As is apparent these days, one man’s pirate is another man’s coast guard.”

I wish all love and peace, pirates included.

(P.S. I set out on this post to write about the other pirates too, PirateBay, yet this’ll come somewhere during the week)

So yesterday, when I was at my dad’s place, waiting until he finished work, I flipped the TV on, hoping for some Ray Mears on National Geographic (it has some good things this TV thing), I came by CNN.. And, although I believe in kindness and compassion being two of the basic values of life, I could not help but to want to throw the ashtray towards the moving images on the machine. The screen kept on flashing the following messages towards me:

World in Recession

“the Road to Recovery?”

First of all, any of you who has ever had 3 lessons in economy will know that capitalist ‘market’ economies tend to be cyclical, so we’re always either on our way to recovery, or recession, making the question mark VERY bloody unnecessary. This in itself leads to the idea that economic downfall is quite normal every 4 to 8 years. I personally find it hard to believe that companies should make multi-billion euro profits and create a society in which people are employed based on the ‘wind of the day’. But I’m drifting off.

The CNN broadcast was continued by an item on the German car industry which was ‘booming’ with a 20% increase in sales in the first quarter of this year already! I got all exited about the seemingly positive news until the following:

“The German government has decided to implement the “Scrap-Bonus” meaning; they give people a €2500,- ‘bonus’  to bring their cars (over 9 years old) to the scrap yard and get €2500,- when buying a new car.

In itself, really kind of miss Merkel. The problem, in my humble opinion is the following; Cars whose production (and use) was massively environmentally damaging in the first place, are being torn apart to be replaced by cars that were produced in the same manner, with, ok, slightly improved, damaging elements still in place. Although the EU support for the industry was issued under severe environmental regulations, there are in no way in place or executed yet.

Let me put one thing straight, I’m not against keeping jobs, helping out people, or any of these kind of arguments. What I am opposing though, is the continued Cradle to Grave attitude of leaders on the highest level of our political world. There is no thinking, environmental problems have been around for over 2 decades now, and still these kinds of regulations are being implemented. Why don’t these people see (I’m sure they see, but why can’t they act upon it?!) that the ‘financial’ world is build on a bullshit mechanism which is ruled by the richest 12% of our world deciding every single aspect of the lives of those who they employ (or rule?). To illustrate the ‘balloon’; The top 3 richest people in the world lost 63 billion, which means that in total all billionaires lost 1.4 trillion. I mean, imagine your house entirely empty, now, fill it up with all the money stacks that would fit your house, and now, POEF, it’s gone, including your house.

Seriously, we’re talking about stuff that does not appear, is based on whim of the day activity and most of the time, the most ‘profitable’ ones are highly unethical, destroying the planet and creating a bigger divide between have’s and have-not’s.

And it’s pissing me off.

And stop whining about this fucking crisis too, see it as an opportunity to make a stand for yourself, get yourself your own company, finally, take a chance with your own ass, instead of relying on others to take them for you. In the end you’ll pay for their mistakes as well. (look at government bail-outs…)

To end things on a positive note; Help out a stranger today, see someone in your city with a map, looking for something, help ‘m out, show them your hangout, buy them a beer, have a conversation with a complete stranger, there’s always something to learn.

Have fun!

Love & Peace,

Len