Dear Friends

The pieces below speak for themselves. Soccer is no longer, as football's world governing body FIfa likes to claim, a game to unite the world but one in which profiteerers of the world unite. The whole game today with the multibillions going between clubs, players, the media, the advertising industry and the profit mongering manipulators behind the scenes, are only part of why there is so much economic difficulty facing us today.

For those who think World Cup 2010 is just a way to relax and unwind, please bear in mind the human cost of such an attitude. We cannot make things better for us nor anyone else if we do not see ourselves as our sisters' and brothers' keepers.

'The sound of vuvuzelas cut through the air in Durban on June 16 -- but for one large group there was little to celebrate. Amid cries of phansi ngama-fat cats, phansi (down with fat cats, down) and a sea of banners proclaiming the government cared only for the rich, civil rights organisations took to the streets protesting against poor service delivery and the World Cup.

Abahlali Base Mjondolo, KwaZulu-Natal Subsistence Fisher's Forum, Clairwood Social Forum and about 17 other organisations gathered for what they dubbed an "anti-Thiefa" protest march which started at Dinizulu Park and ended at City Hall yesterday.

"The R40 billion the government has spent on the World Cup could have comfortably housed three million homeless South Africans", said Alice Thomson of the Durban Social Forum. "Soccer will not make a better life for all -- it will only make the rich richer and the poor poorer," Thomson said.

This week, Thomson was arrested for distributing anti-FIFA pamphlets at the Fifa Fan Fest in Durban.

Bongani Mthembu, of the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance, said that the decision to hold the protest on Youth Day was deliberate. "Youth Day is an opportunity for us as the youth to air our grievances and raise our concerns. We can show the foreigners here the truth about what's happening behind the World Cup", he said.

Chairman of KZN Subsistence Fisher's Forum Essop Mohamed said: "Some people were 'tired of falling by the wayside'. We are marching against oppression."

"They let FIFA come here and do what they want, but they won't let us fish", he said, referring to a city ruling to bar fishing in certain areas along the beachfront.

Said Shamitha Naidoo, community chairwoman in Pinetown of Abahlali Base Mjondolo: "We need to show them (tourists) what's happening. How will these poor people benefit from the World Cup?"

Protester Kirubavathi Pillay, 68, was also angry at what she said was the inability of the eThekwini Municipality to deliver adequate services. "No one worries about us. We can't manage without some help from the government," Pillay said. "They are not fighting for us. We must fight for us", added Jaysh Ramphul, another marcher.'

(Kamcilla Pillay, Daily News, Durban)

MEMORANDUM OF GRIEVANCES

DATE: June 16, 2010

TO: KZN Premier Zweli Mkhize, Durban Mayor Obed Mlaba, Deputy Mayor Logie Naidoo and Durban City Manager Michael Sutcliffe

RE: Grievances about World Cup 2010 management

We are the citizenry of Durban. Our organisations have long registered grievances about the way the city is being run. In recent months, we have found that many of our problems are worsening, especially because of the way the World Cup has been implemented by FIFA, its corporate partners, politicians and bureaucrats.

While in principle we do not oppose Durban hosting seven World Cup games, we are very opposed to many decisions made by FIFA and city, provincial and national officials. The problems we record below require urgent attention and immediate remedial action.

Economic burden

• Whereas Durban’s 70 000-seater Moses Mabhida Stadium cost taxpayers R3.1 billion; the cost escalation for Mabhida rose from an initial R1.8 billion; and redirecting most of this spending could have erased the majority of the vast backlogs Durban faces, of housing, water/sanitation, electricity, clinics, schools and roads;

• Mabhida’s next-door neighbour is Absa Stadium, home of Sharks rugby, which seats 52 000 and which could easily have been extended

(considering that Durban municipality will knock out 15 000 seats from Mabhida after July);

• the companies and individuals that have profited most from Mabhida’s construction include multinational corporations and those responsible for notorious municipal disasters, such as bus privatiser Remant Alton and Point development failure Dolphin Whispers, along with at least one fake Black Economic Empowerment front company;

• the import bill for Mabhida appears unreasonable, as reflected in breakdowns of Mabhida’s Sky Car due to imported German cables held up for repair by the Icelandic volcano, and in imported German tents erected next to Mabhida by an imported German marquee construction crew;

• the soaring foreign and domestic debt we are now suffering because of World Cup expenses will cause untold problems for the SA economy in years to come; FIFA is not subject to South African taxes; FIFA is also allowed to ignore SA exchange control regulations; and the FIFA profit estimate is more than R25 billion;

Corruption and state failure

•    whereas this kind of extreme waste and crony capitalism typifies the relationship of FIFA to host governments; bribery and corruption have been associated with FIFA’s operations (as documented in lawsuits in Zug and New York); bribes have been predicted (by England’s former World Cup bid manager) that would distort play by some of the leading teams coming to South Africa; and corruption whistle-blowing in Mpumalanga Province led to several suspicious deaths, reportedly by organised hit squads;

•    Durban’s own recent corruption in the construction of low-cost housing by Zikhulise Cleaning, Maintenance and Transport became a national scandal; Durban housing official Nigel Gumede and City Manager Mike Sutcliffe rejected the findings of the National Home Builders’ Registration Council report which shows extensive wrongdoing – one third of houses in Umlazi requiring reconstruction - in a R300 million contract begun in December 2006; politically-connected Zikhulise owners Shauwn and S’bu Mpisane have a notoriously luxurious lifestyle with a car fleet worth a reported R100 million;

•    Durban’s Council and ward committee system has become a form of top-down political control; Council does not take our voices upwards; the democratic gains that were won in 1994 are also our victories, but have been taken from us;

•    the September 2009 attack on the Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM) movement, its leaders and well known members, their family members and its offices in the Kennedy Road settlement apparently received the backing of the local ruling party and government structures; many AbM members cannot go back to Kennedy Road; and several of the Kennedy Road 13 are being imprisoned interminably without bail or being charged;

•    the Durban council has made clear its intent to demolish the Early Morning Market at Warwick Junction in favour of a shopping mall; the Early Morning Market is one of the surviving monuments of the indentured Indian labourers; and hundreds of jobs – as well as affordable edibles – for poor people are at stake;

•    Durban fisherfolk have witnessed rich people fishing off expensive boats and yachts unhindered while working-class subsistence fishermen suffer police harassment and arrests; fishermen have recently been denied access to New Pier, the South Pier, the Bluff military base and the quayside shore (Gunter Gulley, Yacht Mole, Lucky Dip); and there is worsening sea-water pollution – rubbish, oil and chemicals in the harbour – and apparently no environmental precautions being taken;

•    Durban’s hundreds of thousands of immigrants are under sustained attack; the May 2008 xenophobic attacks demonstrated a failed municipal state which by August washed its hands of ongoing xenophobia crisis and by November used police brutality to displace desperate refugees; Lesotho migrant workers are protesting the revocation of the ‘six month’ system of border concessions; there remain inadequate support systems and preventative measures against another xenophobia attack; and immigrants continue to face oppression in their dealings with the South African government and police;

Workers, the poor and communities under attack

•    whereas this country is rich because of the theft of our land and because of our work in the farms, mines, factories, kitchens and laundries of the rich; and that wealth is therefore also our wealth;

•    the working class and poor of Durban are under severe pressure because of the world and SA economic crises, which have not yet lifted for us, costing the country more than a million lost jobs and leaving Durban badly exposed in sectors like shipping, clothing and textiles; poor and working people are being pushed out of any meaningful access to citizenship; recent government statistics prove the urban poor are becoming poorer; and we are being forced off land and out of our cities;

•    too many of us who have formal water and electricity connections have not been able to afford the fast-rising costs of these services and face disconnection; the promise of housing has been downgraded to forced removal to a transit camp more like prisons than homes; housing that has been built exists in human dumping grounds far outside of the cities and far from work, schools, clinics and libraries; and there is a new, heavy-handed, privatised municipal debt collection strategy that is wrecking state-community relationships;

•    poor flat dwellers have suffered from unaffordable and exploitative rents; and the poor have been forced to sign exploitative rental agreements under duress and threat of eviction;

•    farm dwellers have suffered the impoundment of cattle, demolition of homes, denial of the right to bury loved ones, denial of basic service and brutality (and sometimes murder) at the hands of some farmers; and a biased justice system which has systematically undermined farm dwellers;

•    outsourcing of casualised labour has become a full-fledged crisis, as witnessed in the revolt by Stallion Security workers who were exploited at Moses Mabhida and four other stadiums to the extent of protesting in the face of police stun grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets; crises caused by Durban’s labour brokers include the ports – partly responsible for a recent three-week strike by transport workers – and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, where underpaid workers (less than R1000 take-home pay for UKZN cleaners) are suffering;

World Cup’s pro-rich bias

•    whereas while the rich have benefited from the World Cup, the poor have not; the Zakumi doll mascot and other memorabilia were made in China not South Africa; Durban’s informal street traders have been displaced and barred from selling in the vicinity of stadiums; and Durban fisherfolk have been evicted from the city’s main North Beach and South Beach piers;

•    township soccer facilities were meant to be created and maintained with state subsidies but have not been; and street kids were brutally displaced from central Durban in advance of the World Cup; according to former chief executive  of the South African Premier Soccer League Trevor Phillips; “Durban has two football teams which attract crowds of only a few thousand. It would have been more sensible to have built smaller stadiums nearer the football-loving heartlands and used the surplus funds to have constructed training facilities in the townships”;

•    FIFA’s tourist initiatives are based on what it calls ‘luxurious ambiance’ not working-class hospitality; promises of 450 000 international visitors for the World Cup were high overestimates; and many jobs in the tourism sector were shed when the overestimates became apparent;

Public transport

•    whereas many in Durban continue to be dependent upon private automobiles (with resulting adverse impacts on climate change); there has been a sharp decline in Durban’s public transport compared to other South African cities which have begun investing in the Bus Rapid Transit system; a government web-site (www.sa2010.gov.za) promised benefits for the host cities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer including “a fast, comfortable and low cost urban transport system … for central business districts but also in townships”;

•    Durban officials have implemented air-conditioned “People Mover” buses with security guards at every stop, running every 15 minutes from 06h00 until 23h00, but only in the city centre and along the beachfront, mostly for the benefit of tourists; there is still terribly inadequate public transport in both the townships and suburbs, and many areas are currently unserviced, and others have an infrequent and unreliable service with no bus timetables available;

Environment

•    whereas the ‘greenwashing’ of the World Cup includes incorrect claims by Durban officials that the CO2 permanently emitted in the vast cement construction plus increased air travel can be ‘offset’ by planting trees (which themselves are only a temporary, fragile container of CO2 because they emit the same carbon when they die and biodegrade); officials brag about ‘carbon credits’ from burning methane from rubbish dumps in a World Bank Clean Development Mechanism project (even though such ‘emissions trading’ is a dangerous distraction from fighting climate change), and the poorest people of Durban will suffer the most from climate change;

•    there is no sense in constructing new coal-fired plants (such as Medupi) and nuclear generators so as to give further electricity subsidies to vast multinational corporations such as BHP Billiton (which receives the world’s cheapest power); 100% renewable energy is a pre-requisite to avert global climate disruptions; the refusal to phase out coal, oil and gas also causes military conflicts, magnifying social and environmental injustice; and governments; corporations such as BP continue to support and finance fossil fuel exploration, extraction and activities that worsen global warming such as forest degradation and destruction on a massive scale, while dedicating only token sums to renewable energy, and leaving areas like South Durban with some of the world’s worst air pollution due to oil refining;

•    global climate disruptions – extreme weather events, droughts, floods, increased disease, scarce water - are already disproportionately felt by small island states, coastal peoples, indigenous peoples, local communities, fisherfolk, women, youth, poor people, elderly and marginalised communities;

Our rights of expression

•    whereas according to the bid proposal and subsequent contracts with the South African government, FIFA was given full indemnity “against all proceedings, claims and related costs (including professional adviser fees) which may be incurred or suffered by or threatened by others;” and in addition, “Police officers and other peace officials will be provided to enforce the protection of the marketing rights, broadcast rights, marks and other intellectual property rights of FIFA an its commercial partners” – as witnessed in the ridiculous arrest of Dutch women whose only crime was to wear an orange dress to Soccer City for the Holland-Denmark game;

•    our own leading journalists are stifled from reporting on FIFA’s wrongdoing because of a required pledge not to throw the organisation into ‘disrepute’ as a prerequisite for accreditation, as witnessed by the refusal of the national broadcaster to show the documentary film Fahrenheit 2010 made partly in Durban;

•    the murder of three young men in Phoenix earlier this month is yet more evidence of local police brutality, as was the excessive force – stun grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets - used to subdue non-violent Stallion Security workers protesting at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Monday, June 14;

We therefore demand

• adequate compensation to Durban ratepayers and national taxpayers for the windfall profits made by construction of unnecessary stadiums such as Moses Mabhida, investigations into extreme cost escalations, and a renewed commitment for a fiscal boost to remove South Africa’s vast backlogs of housing, water/sanitation, electricity, clinics, schools and roads;

• immediate imposition of taxation and exchange controls on multinational and local corporations associated with the World Cup, on grounds that contracts entered into with FIFA are legally Odious;

•    investigations into bribery and corruption associated with FIFA contracts and World Cup construction in Durban and especially in Mpumalanga Province, and full criminal investigations into Durban’s own recent corruption scandals;

•    a thorough overhaul of Durban’s Council and ward committee system so as to introduce genuine democracy and popular participation;

•    a commission of inquiry into events associated with the jailing of the Abahlali baseMjondolo Kennedy Road 13, their unconditional release, and the right-of-return of AbM to Kennedy Road;

•    the end of municipal harassment of traders, especially in the Early Morning Market at Warwick Junction, and subsidies that would permit it to become an historic monument, having just marked the market’s centenary;

•    the end of municipal harassment of Durban fisherfolk, the imposition of more reasonable fishing license fees, and a recommitment to cleaning the harbour and beaches of pollution of all sorts;

•    a renewed commitment to combating the scourge of xenophobia;

•    a redistribution of the society’s income and wealth so that South Africa is no longer the world’s most unequal major economy, an end to the municipal debt collection strategy and other systems that worsen inequality, and increases in free basic water and electricity allotments financed through a luxury consumption tax on those who use too much;

•    an end to exploitative rental and housing arrangements, to oppression of rural people and to injustice against farm dwellers;

•    a ban on labour broking, as has long been promised by the ruling party;

•    a dramatic increase in township soccer and sports facilities;

•    follow-through on the promise of “a fast, comfortable and low cost urban transport system … for central business districts but also in townships” and an expansion of “People Mover” buses across metro eThekwini;

•    an end to new coal-fired plants and nuclear generators so as to save the environment from certain destruction, stringent monitoring of air and water quality and public access to the findings, strict law enforcement against polluters and littering, a commitment to proper maintenance of all Durban’s green areas in a cohesive, sensitive, responsible and inclusive manner for the benefit of the environment and the people of Durban not just the city elite, dedication to the eradication and control of alien species with a view to permanent job creation, and strict enforcement of city bylaws by Metro Police to prevent urban decay, slum development and the resultant health hazards and environmental degradation;

•    a retraction of indemnity to FIFA and end to the order prohibiting journalists from throwing FIFA into ‘disrepute’ as a prerequisite for accreditation;

•    an end to police brutality, proper policing of all neighbourhoods, and redirection of policing resources spent on FIFA to all citizens;

•    an end to the arrogant, authoritarian, exclusive, insensitive, parochial decision-making processes undertaken by the Ethekwini Municipality throughout all areas of its jurisdiction.

When considering the speed and lavishness with which services were delivered for the 2010 World Cup, we have no doubt the above demands can be met timeously and professionally.

(Taken from http://links.org.au/node/1747)

Link: RFK on Vietnam War

-- 19th century Cree Indian saying

Here we will look at CCs briefly and in the context of what they are and how they operate according to the ideas of Bernard Lietaer, former senior Central Bank executive of Belgium and someone who has proposed a new money called the Terra. The ideas that follow will be based on and evolved from those of Lietaer’s. What will be proposed as a CC that can be used in conjunction with the Three Step Move, is a currency that I call the Indigo.

For some more info please watch:

Briefly, a CC is one that involves the use of private money or scrips as distinct from national currencies which are national legal tender. As Dr Gill Seyfang says in her important “Bartering for a Better Future? Community Currencies and Sustainable Consumption”, a CC “is the generic term for a wealth of alternative types of money which are springing up in communities throughout the world to address social, economic and environmental needs.”

Seyfang goes on to elaborate on three main types of CCs. These include Local Exchange Trading Schemes/Systems (LETS) which aim to “rebuild local economies through cashless exchange; Time Banks [that] promote volunteering, civic engagement and mutual self-help by rewarding unpaid work in the community; the…NU-card, a mainstream ‘green loyalty point’ currency piloted in the Netherlands which incentivises sustainable consumption.”

The focus here will be on the CCs which would fall under the LETS type of new money or what Lietaer would also classify as the Terra new money. According to Lietaer in his influential The Future of Money, there is a four-tiered monetary system for the future. People and businesses will routinely and comfortably deal in this multiple currency system, just as we today use all kinds of value cards, air miles, vouchers, credit and debit cards and virtual currencies in the course of our lives.

The first tier of this monetary structure would be a ‘global reference currency’, which is not linked to nation states as such. This currency, which is what the Terra is supposed to evolve into, is there to provide a steady reliable type of money that can be used for international trade. The Terra will be based on internationally traded items like gold, copper, and wheat. It appears that Lietaer believes that this kind of new world currency could morph into being from various corporate scrips used in cashless trade between businesses today.

Apparently, in the US, 400,000 businesses are linked to about 700 barter exchanges, which results in $8.5 billion in cashless trade. It seems that this kind of trade rips along at 15% a year, three times the speed of dollar commercial exchanges.

A second tier in this monetary structure would be, for example, certain multinational currencies utilized by what would be deemed as geopolitically-close countries. This could include say the NAFTA dollar, the Euro, and an ASEAN (the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations) currency.

On the third level, we have some remaining national currencies which run within or outside the multinational currency regions. But this time, individual states no longer have the monopoly in issuance of currency.

At the fourth level, we have CCs/new money as has been discussed. To Lietaer, these CCs could have an expanded role and greater influence, as they may be widely used and exchanged through community internet clearing houses. The Terra, as it is envisaged now, would have evolved from this category. What we need to look at in some detail is what the Terra is and how this may affect its future as a world reference currency.

The Terra is a CC that would be issued by a nation’s central bank. As outlined by Lietaer in his seminal “A ‘Green’ Convertible Currency”, what we will have is a “commodity-based currency, [for ] a…New Currency backed by a basket of from three to a dozen different commodities for which there are existing international commodity markets. For instance, 100 New Currency could be worth 0.05 ounces of gold, plus 3 ounces of silver, plus 15 pounds of copper, plus 1 barrel of oil, plus 5 pounds of wool.”

This CC/new money is therefore backed by the valuation of the commodities in the basket at the value of the national currency of the society it originates from. So in the US, the value of the basket, in terms of USD, will determine the exchange rate between those trading in USD for the Terra in America.

Once again, we need to understand that the Terra works in tandem with the national currency and is not a new money that supplants everything else in its wake. As the Terra TRC (Trade Reference Currency) White Paper by Takashi Kiuchi, Chairman of The Future 500, states:

“The Terra is designed as a complementary currency operating in parallel with national currencies. Therefore, everything that exists today as monetary and financial products or practices continues to exist. The Terra mechanism is only one additional option available for those international economic actors who voluntarily choose to use it.”

Of course, this may advance into the more generic realm of the four tiered monetary structure put forward by Lietaer. So the Terra would be used as a complement in international trade alongside national currencies. The idea being to not only provide an alternative, but wean nations away from relying on conventional currencies which are fiat money subject to the swings of money markets and the designs of central banks and politicians.

But herein lies a problem. The nub of the issue is that the valuation of the Terra basket is done in the US, for e.g., in terms of USD. At this point, all hell may break loose due to the unreliability of fiat currencies. That is why the Three Step was proposed to overcome the problem of the Terra’s system of backing and help move it further onto the path of its contribution to the world.

Moving the Terra back to Firma

The trouble is how stable can the value of the Terra basket be when based on a valuation of what the source of the problem of our monetary system is: floating fiat currencies. Given the vagaries of the floating currency, anytime a disruption occurs, like the impending crisis coming for the USD as discussed earlier, the value of the Terra basket is going to be affected severely.

So I put this question to Lietaer himself and in a recent email (received only just as I was starting to write this piece), he says in effect that, yes, the components of the basket are quoted in whatever national money as they are today. But, however, the Terra instability I mentioned “is the one reflecting changes in value of those national moneys, not of the Terra. If there is a drop in value of the US$, that would simply mean that the Terra /in US$ /becomes more expensive. The real measure of value is the basket of the Terra itself...”

But it seems to me that it begs the issue of what is the value of the Terra, that is, it is measured in the national currency; but that currency is unstable due to its floating fiat nature and in the case of USD…potentially worse is yet to come. And it gives rise to another exchange rate problem of the falling currency of the USD, say, and the now ever more expensive Terra. This seems like it is back to Money as we still know it today.

Which is where gold comes in: once a national currency (e.g. USD) is on a fixed real value exchange to something truly stable and reliable like gold, the problem vanishes completely. Now we have a Terra basket valued solidly to commodities valued solidly to a currency fully backed by the value of gold. No more exchange rise and fall fiascos associated with fiat currencies.

This stable CC of the Terra then goes onto its next phase, which is the process of demurrage that comes in thanks to the genius of Silvio Gessel.

please watch

The currency in true ecological fashion, has built in entropy that allows it to depreciate at the rate of say 10% a month, which means that if it is not used in 10 months time it will be worth nothing.

This is where the value of this type of CC becomes apparent as it forces the use of the currency in productive enterprises and not in hoarding or speculation of money markets. This inevitably leads to the kind of stimulus to productivity that standard Money can never equate. As seen in practice throughout history, the demurrage of this kind of new money or scrip leads to rapid growth and it does not place a strain on national currencies, nor create the harmful economic competition that national currencies foster. In fact, with a shift back to gold, the CC will truly be a complementary currency in every sense of the term as it comfortably complements the use of stable non-inflationary national Money guaranteed by gold.

The use of the Terra as shown in the Terra TRC White Paper involves a TRC Alliance that issues out the TRC to an oil company producing barrels of oil. The value of barrels of oil for sale is then translated into Terras through a currency conversion. The Terra is then used among those allied to the TRC network, as the demurrage takes effect. The demurrage takes place over the period of a year.

Indigos and Terra Firmas

With all this in place, I will look at a specific type of CC, the Indigo, that can be used within a LETS framework of a community and which is a parallel prototype of the Terra. This is the kind of currency that can be used before long and can evolve to the type envisioned in the form of the Terra (with the use of a commodities basket). The following way of creating the Indigo is an analogue of Terra creation adapted accordingly from the TRC White Paper.

Let us say we take a community of several municipalities or a province. This would provide a framework for a healthy dose of activity and business. These steps would follow in the creation of Indigos for a community of 50,000:

a. Let’s say the population of 50,000 has a median income of $24,000 a year (this national $ is backed by the new gold standard).

b. we take one-third the median income (as the rest of the income will be for other use, savings, insurance, etc) and multiply that by 50,000 so we get $8000 x 50,000 = $400 000 000

c. the basket of commodities for the Indigo includes the value of selected areas in townships like property value of public housing, areas of green spaces and/or agricultural land, community playgrounds, and healthcare centres. Choice of items and areas can be changed or rotated. So let us say that the value of this basket comes to $500 (figures chosen are for simplicity to get the calculation going).

d. we now have $400 000 000 divided by $500 = 800 000 Indigos

e. the Indigo has a 1:1 exchange with the $ (national currency). So this amount within a year is available from banks in the area. People buy them and this paper and virtual currency system (which will have a proper system of accounting) starts with its demurrage from the moment of purchase.

f. the rate of demurrage is 8.3% per month, which means that the Indigo will be worth almost zero right at the end of the time period of the year from its issuance. This would come to about 0.27% depreciation of the Indigo per day.

All national money used to purchase the Indigo goes to the community fund of the area/province it operates in. This fund will also keep the difference from Indigo cash-ins for national $. The cash-in difference earned by the community fund comes from factoring in the demurrage for cashed-in Indigos against $ reimbursements. At the end of the year, the community fund is recycled into community projects, etc.

So, anyone can cash-in on the Indigo at the bank at anytime for an equivalent $ exchange which would be less than initial purchase due to the demurrage. The difference from loss in $ value from the cash-in (thanks to demurrage) goes into a fund that various municipalities or communities will redistribute as funding for community projects. These recipients from the cash-in fund are designated each year by each local government (for e.g.). This is gleaned from the practice of demurrage used in certain north European townships where the cash-in ‘loss’ goes to various good causes.

What happens to Indigos cashed-in early? Well, they are up for sale to others. They are still bought at the 1:1 ratio with national $. So if the Indigos are reacquired say 6 months before their expiry, then the demurrage that kicks in will be twice the official one. That is because the money is not an infinite value store nor like the pyramid scheme expansion of current Money. That is one of the reasons for the demurrage, to eradicate pyramid schemes for money and an obsession in it as an end in itself.

So the reacquired Indigos with a shorter life span simply lead to more intense usage of the Indigo which is all the better in promoting growth. Also, if there are further cash-ins for reacquired Indigos then the cash-in difference goes back as usual to the community fund. People who acquire cashed-in indigos would be aware of this and would participate wholeheartedly in what is a community currency.

This process only emphasizes the natural and ecological nature of the Indigo and such CCs or new money. It is meant to decay and rejuvenate again when the next batch is issued for the following year based on renewed calculations for the Indigo currency basket. This is ecological money.

This reinvestment cycle from the use of the Indigo is a great way to improve community wealth. This in turn adds to societal growth. In the end, it is about the community, not the money per se. This in turn ensures that anyone buying and selling Indigos thinking they can ‘profit’ or make a ‘killing’ in exchanges with the $ are genuinely mistaken. They have to spend the new money or they will simply lose its monetary value. So when they realize this and cash-in, the difference from this goes back to the community, yet again. The purpose of the new money is always to promote growth, mutual trust and reciprocity, and more $ actually put back into the community.

This is a complete virtuous cycle meant to move forwards and upwards with communities gaining more and more each time. It is win-win in the best sense of the term. At an international level, the Indigo could transform into a firmer version of the Terra. Now we can have a Terra used by individual states backed not just by commodities, but by a nation’s value of national natural land areas, and high end human spaces. Cash-ins would be given to the state treasury for reinvestment into communities and/or national areas in need of assistance or development.

Or let us take it a step further. If the world’s nations have generally moved back to a gold standard, then a new world currency could develop backed by an international basket of swathes of the Amazon, arctic wildlife areas, world cultural icons, commodities like rice and wheat, solar and wind farms, etc. The basket would be measured in this case against the value of gold. So when this new world reference currency comes into play, called the Terra Firma, we actually finally have a stable world currency which can be cashed in any country because the equivalent in national $ will be given back with ease since everything is now measured in terms of stable gold value.

So a Terra Firma worth say 10 ounces in gold may be cashed in (after demurrage sets in), for the national currency in its country of use depending on that national currency’s gold value. The difference from the cash-in goes to a national fund of the country which reinvests into either needful areas in that country or split into reinvesting at an international level as well (that is, the reinvestment is handled by, for e.g., a new and reinvented UN backed International Monetary Fund). Since the basket involves world heritage areas and resources, a UN type body can supervise reinvestment into similar areas. This needs further clarification for as of now, international law is such that the natural green areas of the world, for e.g., would fall under the jurisdiction of the nation state it is in. In the end, the plan is for the world community to gain from this, and it reduces again competition for national currencies.

There will be a national CC fund from which countries participating in the Terra Firma Alliance will buy their new money from. The fund will also handle reimbursements and keep the difference from cash-ins. All the money earned here will be recycled into community/national community projects as designated by national government in consultation with some local governmental entities, at year end. Similarly at the international level, a UN body (IMF) would look to the reinvestment process from money earmarked for it from the relevant national CC funds.

One objection that tends to arise is would people start to rush to change national $ for Terras or Terra Firmas? Why would they when there would be a four tier world currency system and a whole host of CCs and new money all over the world among different communities to use? Terra Firmas are but the top layer of a multi-tier monetary environment. This decentralized use of money ensures we will relate to and use money in completely new and sophisticated ways different from the way it is used and viewed today.

What if people horde this new money and try to create shortages? Please go ahead and watch the demurrage eat away at your ‘golden hoard’. Again, there is such a choice for the new money in a multilayered monetary system which makes hoarding quite meaningless. There is the assumption, I must admit, that in the years ahead there will be a fundamental shift in human nature. And that shift would be complemented by CCs (proving its complementariness yet again) and that will ensure the growth, success and meaningfulness of the new money.

How it all hangs…

So, my friends, at the end of this experiment in ideas for CCs and new money, the Three Step move is of use because the crash of floating fiat currencies is in the works whether any of us like it or not. The USD, which some countries are rethinking as use as a reserve currency even as you read this, is going through the calm before the Great Debt Unraveling. When this happens, the natural recourse of nations, as has been done throughout the ages will be to return to the stable form of money that it has always used in such times: gold.

The advent of a new gold standard will see to a stabilization of the world monetary system. This will also allow for the flourishing of innovative forms of business like social businesses and CCs and the possible advent of the Terra. Examples of use of CCs linked to stable national money would be the Indigo, which can be fine tuned and improved by those better experienced in the operation of CCs. This in turn could lead to the Terra Firma, a real world reference currency.

These will be the first moves in serious decentralization of power from central governments, and to a more democratic participation of people in their communities and countries. Whichever way one wants to see this, it cannot but bode well for all of us in the long run by returning to what matters more than all the money in the word: human values.

Be well and happy.

Part of changing mindsets of people for the better is to change the way the economy works, and how we view and live in it.

We can do this when each of us does our part in spreading some form of good work.

There are new ways to measure and view economic growth beyond GDP. What's missing are things like GPI (Genuine Progress Indicator) and even GNH (Gross National Happiness).

This is not to say that GDP does not have its uses. But it is a highly inaccurate and misleading way to capture growth and success in an economy.

A GDP valuation includes all money generated by a country including for eg, the cost of a war, car accidents, oil spillage etc.

This means that rather than reflect what is a 'plus' in the ledger, the GDP includes all 'minuses' as well (ie, money lost and spent on wasteful and harmful activites).

For eg, if you have your own firm and you factor in all the money you earn at the end of the month. Then you minus all the debits you have from it, like maintenance costs, cost of education and food for your children etc,

Whatever's then left from your earnings is your profit. That's common sense.

But a GDP, believe it or not, takes all your earnings and expenditure including your minuses and rolls that up to a grand figure and says thats what an economy has made. It's counterintuitive because you shouldn't add your losses as growth, but economies do that. Which is why most growth indicators are misleading.

Expenditure is not equal to growth. Growth is much more than dollars spent/generated.

That is why you can have GDP growth but unemployment/or marginal employment (because you can grow a GDP by expensive govt projects which is not the same as getting people decent jobs that allow them to lead a decent life).

Web searches on this and on "Green Economy" will help put many of these things in context. Many of these ideas can also be gleaned from Economia by Geoff Davies and The Economics of Happiness by Mark Anielski

Check out: http://www.anielski.com/

Countries like Bhutan use the GNH, and local and even the federal govt. in Canada now use GPIs.

The GPI captures the quality of life. That is what economies are really about.

How it is done is basically to have a plus and debit system for an economy and you do the right thing by subtracting the negative effects of losses to the economy and their negative impact: like building more cars, and creating larger roads to contain them, or demolishing green spaces and community areas for larger shopping malls and more $ banks, or a greater armament industry.

The GPI can be used together with the current GDP as a better and fair basis of capturing economic growth.

One of the measurements used in GPI, and not in GDP calculations, are activities that are not given monetary value but are nonetheless of great value.

For eg, a value is given to what a stay home parent contributes, to social and volunteer workers' contributions, to social and community contributions by companies, or activities by civil and civic society.

If a person takes time off work to look after an ailing parent or family member, or even a good friend, this may be added or captured by GPI.

This is part of the pluses added to the GPI calculation.

If a society becomes less gracious due to rapid urbanisation and harmful economic competition, this would be captured as a minus under GPI.

Studies have shown that since the end of WW2, while the GDP has grown greatly in the US (for instance) its GPI has eroded drastically.

Which explains why material wealth doesn't equate in many people's view to genuine wealth and what gives meaning to their lives.

And on the innovative use of cooperatives in this scheme of things check out Emilia-Romagna in Italy which also produces apart from fine food, wine, the automative industries of Ferrari, Ducati, Lamborghini, and Maserati (perhaps they might go Green...?).

Part of the need for a new economy is due to the failure, increasingly evident, of our current debt based monetary system that is now reeling from corporate malfeasance, priorities given to the banking industry and a near collapse of financial loan institutions: the fallout of which the US and many other countries are starting to face now.

Witness the recent desperate rate cuts by the US Fed and the buying of stakes by Singapore's sovereign wealth funds into international banking organisations -- all a result of a failing debt based economic system.

This impacts all of us: that's why mainly middle class people find that they all have to work harder, longer, get more depressed and stressed and still find that the genuinely rich get only richer, as everyone else slides into more debt, poverty and frustration.

Never mind the lower income groups who are desperately trying to find just breathing space.

The imbalance of things, and unacceptable level of inequity that the current debt based economic system generates is ruining our quality of life.

Part of this has to do with the monetary system we have: eg, a debt based system in which banks issue paper money based quite literally on nothing. They actually do create money out of thin air.

The monetary system of debts and interest rates only create the economic slavery that all hard working people (and increasingly unemployed people) find themselves in.

One of the things we need are interest free banks.

Check out: Anielski Report

Another way is to also start a split barter system where money is used but in a limited form. These ideas can be read up on and I believe Emilia-Romagna uses some form of this system.

Many thanks for your time.