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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead

Essays, Articles, Reports...

Practice Changing...

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~Essays, Articles, Reports~

Creating the Conditions for Peace and Security
Terry McTavish

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Creating the Conditions for Peace and Security

Most North Americans have never before felt the collective sense of vulnerability and grief that was ignited by the barbaric events of Sept 11th. Although we remain far more likely to be taken down by a heart attack or stroke–the victims of mega-meals, super-sizes and cutbacks to physical education programs–security from terrorism has become the preoccupation of individuals, businesses and governments. I hope that we look beyond the acrid plumes of smoke in the US and Afghanistan and focus on the root causes of most human suffering; ignorance and greed. Until we wrestle these old demons, we will not find true security.

As it now stands, the sad truth is that the callous dictates of some of our corporate and political leaders differ from those of terrorists and tyrannical regimes only in the scale of their deadly effects. The latter's being less than the former's. While my chest ached with the horror of the thousands dying in those doomed towers, my mind, steeped in horrors from around the world, reminded me that elsewhere, thousands more were starving to death... that, during the next three hours, 5,000 would starve, then another 5,000, and another... 40,000 preventable deaths that day, the next day, and the next... month after month, year after year. And, for every death, a ring of broken hearts–a shock wave of pain and anger.

Most of these too often short lives end in countries ravaged and chaotic from generations of political and economic colonization. The calculated exploitation that enriches a handful of nations has also left a third of the world in abject poverty. Seldom in history has the gap between rich and poor been so great and never has it brought misery and death to so many.

Not surprisingly, this brew of inequity, injustice and upheaval makes it much easier for those who preach hatred and violence to find both supporters and sanctuary. Perversely, many of these rogues like Osama bin Laden, also receive money, arms, organizational help and schooling in terrorist techniques from the CIA–who, in their zeal to obtain short term goals, have a bad habit of misreading long term consequences. Yesterday's freedom fighters are today's terrorists, carrying out their own violent agendas.

Agendas which they are better able to fund thanks to the inequity and social irresponsibility within the wealthy nations. We know that for every dollar spent on early childhood development we prevent $7 worth of trouble down the road. We know that family violence increases with stress and poverty, and that addiction is much more likely for the abused and disenfranchised. Still, the rich hoard more wealth than they have since the great depression, the middle class is run ragged and the poor are begrudgingly given less help than they really need. Misuse of intoxicants flourishes as we refuse to address the contributing social conditions, deny the difference between benign use and addiction, and fail to confront the irrational hypocrisy of the erratic line between legal and illegal drugs. Instead, we continue to spend billions on a futile drug prohibition effort that pushes 300 to 400 billion dollars a year into the black market it spawned. Cash for the terrorists and other threats to our security.

This untaxed economy supports illegitimate governments and enables criminal organizations to corrupt and threaten legitimate institutions and governments around the world, especially in poor nations. Coupled with the United State’s tactics of funding and arming questionable regimes and poisoning arable land in their war on the drug trade, the cycles of oppression, poverty and conflict are reinforced.

Neither military action nor pursuit of money launderers will get to the root of this flowering of evil. (Think lawn mower and dandelions.) Of course we must stop today's crop of terrorists and bring them to justice, as we must stop today's wars and enforce peace. But, beyond that, we must stop the exploitation and relieve the dire conditions that make brutality seem reasonable, noble, or simply expedient to some people. Likewise we must stop the war on drugs, help the addicts and relieve the dire conditions that make black market wealth so accessible.

I don't credit bin Laden or any terrorist with honestly trying to address global suffering with their heartless acts. I believe they are moved more by inflamed ideological passion than by simple compassion. However, we would do well to let the hurt they have caused attune us to the steady beat of pain felt each day around the world. If we care enough, we can lessen that pain greatly. Then, over time, we will have more peace and be more secure.

We will still have to mind our diet, exercise, and do something about the fact that the health of the planet, which all our lives depend on, is declining with every passing hour. But at least we'll be moving in the right direction. I think we should go for it.

Terry McTavish
Nov 7, 2001


"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country...corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war."

President Abraham Lincoln


"But what counter-insurgency really comes down to is the protection of the capitalists back in America, their property and their privileges. US national security, as preached by US leaders, is the security of the capitalist class in the US, not the security of the rest of the people."

"A considerable proportion of the developed world's prosperity rests on paying the lowest possible prices for the poor countries' primary products and on exporting high-cost capital and finished goods to those countries. Continuation of this kind of prosperity requires continuation of the relative gap between developed and underdeveloped countries - it means keeping poor people poor.

Increasingly, the impoverished masses are understanding that the prosperity of the developed countries and of the privileged minorities in their own countries is founded on their poverty."

"American capitalism, based as it is on exploitation of the poor, with its fundamental motivation in personal greed, simply cannot survive without force - without a secret police force.

Now, more than ever, each of us is forced to make a conscious choice whether to support the system of minority comfort and privilege with all its security apparatus and repression, or whether to struggle for real equality of opportunity and fair distribution of benefits for all of society, in the domestic as well as the international order. It's harder now not to realize that there are two sides, harder not to understand each, and harder not to recognize that like it or not we contribute day in and day out either to the one side or to the other."

Philip Agee, CIA Diary

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Why Are We Not Astonished?
www.enn.com/features/1999/05/051299/worldwatch_3141.asp

"Environmental scientists have made it emphatically clear -- coming about as close as scientists ever come to shouting -- that we are in trouble. What they point to can be described in terms of four global "megaphenomena" -- of rising carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere, rising rates of extinction, rising consumption of resources, and rising population. And all four, after hundreds of centuries of relative stability, have suddenly spiked.

Plotted on graphs, they look like heart attacks. Population, for example, now grows by as much every three days as it did every century, on average, for most of the one-thousand centuries before the Industrial Revolution. Yet, for all the extraordinary arm-waving of the scientists, few people seem to see any big problem. We treat this spasm of biological destruction we've ignited more like heartburn than heart attack."

For the complete article by Ed Ayres follow the link.

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Population Density, Growth Threaten Species in Vulnerable Areas -- Report
Wildlife species are disappearing.
www.unfpa.org/modules/populi/issues2000/mar00/news2.htm

"The high rates of population density and growth in biologically diverse and threatened parts of the world further endanger plant and animal species in those areas, according to a new report by Population Action International (PAI), a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in the United States.

Entitled, Nature’s Place: Human Population and the Future of Biological Diversity, the report states that more than 1.1 billion people live within the 25 most species-rich and environmentally threatened areas of the world. Nature’s Place documents the historical impact of population growth on biological diversity on a global scale, with special attention to the current situation in these 25 "biodiversity hot spots"."

For the complete article follow the link.

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Conserve Resources for Future Generations
www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/consres.shtml

It took more than 200 million years to form all of the oil beneath the surface of the earth. It has taken 200 years to consume half that endowment. If current rates of consumption were to continue, the world's remaining resources of conventional oil would be used up in 40 years.

For the complete article follow the link.

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Democracy and Globalization
John Ralston Saul
www.abc.net.au/specials/saul/default.htm

This is the audio and transcript of a lecture John Ralston Saul delivered at the University of New South Wales in Sydney in January 1999 and broadcast on ABC TV.
You can listen to the audio, read a transcript, or both.
 
The lecture has been broken down into the following sections:
1. Globalization
2. Democracy
3. Competition and Deregulation
4. Technocracy and Capitalism
5. Free Trade and Protectionism
6. Commodity-trading Nations
7. Distribution of Wealth
8. Education and Democracy
9. The International Money Market
10. Economists and the Crisis
11. The Current Moment
12. Conclusion
Full Transcript (printable)
Audio Information
Links

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World Trade Or World Domination
www.motherjones.com/wto/talvi.html

"To its supporters, the WTO is a ray of hope for free trade and growth for even the poorest developing countries. To its detractors, and there are many, it is the enemy of human rights, the environment, labor, and local self-determination. Here are answers to some common questions about the WTO to help you make up your own mind."

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The Great Education Scandal
www.oneworld.org/ni/issue315/contents.htm
"Around 375 million children still out of school, teachers under siege, corporations in the classroom... Chris Brazier begins his four-part report on education by asking: who is selling the world’s children down the river?" But hey, The Coke Dude is happy.

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~Practice Changing~

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Learn the Dvorak keyboard layout

We were all taught to use the ‘qwerty’ keyboard layout, purposely designed to slow down typists so they didn’t jam the early typewriters. Dvorak, a faster, easier to use layout was designed in the 30’s, but has yet to break through our wall of habit. Try it. A few hours practice, and you’ll never look back. You can usually find Dvorak listed in the keyboard options on your computer. You can get exercises free online. There are nice switchable keyboards available, and I wouldn't mind having one, but I just wrote the new letters onto my old keys. By the time they wore off a couple of times, I really didn't need them anymore. I like it a lot.

More than just an easier way to type, it's hands on experience of how good it feels to toss one of the backwards habits we've been taught and replace it with more sensible ways.

Dvorak International
www.dvorakint.org/
Links to all you need to know, and more.

ABCD: A Basic Course in Dvorak
www.karelia.com/abcd/abcd.html
A little practice, and away you go.

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Play around with ambidexterity

Take something that you always do with your dominant hand—throwing, eating, whatever—and do it with your other hand. Do it that way enough to make both hand's abilities comparable. I did it with frisbee, batting, hockey and ping pong—two handed ping pong is a hoot.

Doing this forges new neural pathways in the brain and enhances the communication between the two sides of the brain. Something most of us can benefit from, especially men, who are typically weak in this regard. Overall, this can grease the wheels for new learning and for habit adjustment.

Juggling is probably a great idea. I've yet to tackle that one.

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Take a commercial break

We are subjected to thousands upon thousands of advertisements. If we think that they aren't influencing the level of our desire for consumer goods and our perception of the content that they interrupt, we're kidding ourselves.

A lot of us record shows on TV, then skip the ads by fast forwarding through them but this doesn't work for radio. There are two solutions though. The all music channels on cable is one. And, praise be, public radio is the other. Besides sparing us from the commercial onslaught, tuning in public radio has to be one of the best things we can do for ourselves, our country and the world.

This is where we can hear the cultural heart of our country beating. Artists, scholars, politicians, plus business and professional people form across the country and around the world are in unhurried conversations with some of the best interviewers alive. There's good music, book excerpts, comedy, and the latest research, leavened with the voices of regular folk from every corner of the country and beyond. If you don't have the time and money to travel and study full time, this is the best way to know our country, and the rest of the world.

You can get the CBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, on AM, FM, and around the world on short wave and over the internet.

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Get unplugged, and cyclic

The world we find ourselves in, with its rigid schedules, ringing phones, broadcast media, computers and video games wreaks havoc with our natural rhythms and healthy animal impulses. This is a far cry from what we were made for, and how we lived for thousands of years; as small groups scattered over a vast land, in tune with and dependent on the rhythms of nature. Anyone who gets away from it all once in a while likely has a sense of the fulfilling emergence, or reemergence, of those fundamental parts of us that resonate to a slower more peaceful reality.

There are three basic cycles affecting all life; day and night, the 28 day cycle of the Moon—obvious in its waxing and waning, the tides and menstruation—and, of course, the yearly passage of the seasons. A couple years ago, to bolster our awareness of natural rhythms, we began something that we call Moon Days.

Each full moon, for three days, we mark the lunar cycle by turning off the TV, the computer, and the ringer on the phone. We play the radio less. We try to avoid scheduling many activities and have some meals ready in the freezer. This way we can focus on spontaneous family time, whether it's going to a park or some event or just hanging out. My wife and I each try to get in some alone time as well. Then, in the evening, we walk, play cards, snuggle up and read or, hey, talk to each other.

We try not to be fanatical about any of this. We do check our email and phone messages, in case of emergency, and we do make calls out. We aren't rigid about not scheduling things—we do make plans with other people. We push Moon Days this way and that to fit some of the regular long weekend because we do have a business to run and school to think about.

Even so, it was a treat from the beginning and, after a couple years of this, we can feel when the full moon is coming; there's an inner yearning for the simplicity. It gets easier to get into that more peaceful state on those three days. It has also had a positive effect on how we are on normal weekends and, when we can really get away for a few days, it's easier to make the transition. On the whole, we are noticeably more aware of our natural surroundings all the time. It's a good thing.

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~Reading List~

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