ECONOMIC JUSTICE

Written by Ed Howes


The people who have enough to eat in this world, either producerepparttar food, hunt and gather it, or pay others to provide it. In few instances do these people produce meaningful surplus for those who do not have enough to eat. Untilrepparttar 132581 well fed care aboutrepparttar 132582 hungry and starving, there will be no economic justice, only privilege. That is how simple or complexrepparttar 132583 issue is. The minute an individual takes onrepparttar 132584 responsibility to feed her or himself, s/he begins creating low cost surpluses for those unable to do so. It makes sense to grow more plants in a global greenhouse. The more surplus an individual produces,repparttar 132585 more likely starving people will eat. Economics affect every aspect of life, including spirituality, yet it isrepparttar 132586 least understood ofrepparttar 132587 sciences because economics are poorly taught or not taught at all. Most economists have little understanding. That little understanding makes themrepparttar 132588 experts.

The global value system determines economics. That value system is based on scarcity, commonly calledrepparttar 132589 law of supply and demand. Thousands of years agorepparttar 132590 arbiters of value and wealth decided that gold, silver and precious stones wererepparttar 132591 rarest and therefore,repparttar 132592 most valuable. Of all resources, people wererepparttar 132593 least scarce. So people haverepparttar 132594 least value in this old system. This is foolishness ofrepparttar 132595 highest order and creates disposable people. There are few people living today, who cannot in their lifetimes, produce more value than their own weight in gold. Use yourself as an example. Multiplyrepparttar 132596 current market price of gold by your body weight. Divide that by a typical productive life of 40 or 50 years. Are you earning more or less than this dollar value each year? Keep in mind most folks are paid less than half their market value or earnings.

The economic system we support undervalues life, because life is not scarce. The corporate world would rather have your weight in gold than you, even if you can produce five times that value. That corporate world might not harvest twenty percent of your lifetime value, unless you support their system. If you do support it, you will probably give them a big cut in your home mortgage or business loans and every paycheck. But they will always treat you as expendable, because your kind is never scarce. If we want to be fairly valued inrepparttar 132597 market place, we must be scarce in that market place. A coming labor shortage will help. Becoming scarce means lifestyle changes people do not want to make. Therefore, people will continue to supportrepparttar 132598 system that makes themrepparttar 132599 least valuable commodity in it and be thankful to do so. There is little evil in this world that is not supported byrepparttar 132600 Western lifestyle. As long as we embrace it, there will be no economic justice.

Nowhere on this planet are people more capable of self sufficient living, than inrepparttar 132601 modern West. Yet these people are taught to be dependent on others forrepparttar 132602 very basics of life - wage and salary slaves. Hadrepparttar 132603 back-to-the-land movements ofrepparttar 132604 60s and 70s caught on,repparttar 132605 West would now have great models to share with poor world cultures. New technologies like fuel cells will be ideal for home and neighborhood power systems that will end dependencies on grid supplied electricity and scam artists like Enron.

Inrepparttar 132606 West, we pay a dollar for a ten cent loaf of bread, because we are willing to payrepparttar 132607 other ninety cents to have it at hand when we want it. Much ofrepparttar 132608 rest ofrepparttar 132609 world can't affordrepparttar 132610 same bread at ten cents a loaf. Who do you supposerepparttar 132611 bread makers would rather sell to? This means no bread forrepparttar 132612 hungry at any price. If we really want to helprepparttar 132613 rest ofrepparttar 132614 world, we make a personal commitment to slash our consumption and increase production. This creates a glut inrepparttar 132615 corporate market and forces prices down. Third world producers will complain because this drives down export prices and makes exporting unprofitable. The focus then must shift away from global trade to local trade and that is a major step toward self sufficiency and economic justice.

I heard a radio report last week that India is doing well in this global recession because ninety percent of their domestic production is sold in domestic markets. Beforerepparttar 132616 great corporate marketing chains droverepparttar 132617 mom and pop operations out of business with their economies of scale, local industry and markets were well understood as markers of economic health. Nothing prevents us from returning to local production and marketing. We can even use global marketing to subsidizerepparttar 132618 transition - transformation.

Food is a good example. The knowledge is now available that allows anyone to produce superior food at less than typical market prices. If I decide to raise food crops on an acre or two, I can also plant high dollar cash crops that can be sold in a nearby city or sent anywhere inrepparttar 132619 world, as a mail order business. The wealthy purchase these valuable crops and provide profits that allow me to obtain more land. I can then expand inexpensively on adjacent land and splitrepparttar 132620 crops withrepparttar 132621 owner, or market some on her behalf. I can always expand my local production, marketing and my high dollar global and nearby marketing.

Local production and marketing allows us to hire local labor. The unemployed and under employed get some paid work, free food or both. The idea is to reverserepparttar 132622 centralization of 20th Century production and marketing, which in turn, decentralizes other aspects of our lives. We saverepparttar 132623 costs of heavy farm machinery, bank loans, transportation, taxes, processing, packaging and pay it out to hand labor instead. We also adopt production methods, such as Square Foot Gardening, which reduce water, fertilizer, land and labor costs by as much as eighty percent. The savings can then be invested in expansion and we can market in nearby communities. We can encourage more small scale production, teachingrepparttar 132624 techniques we have successfully applied in our own production and marketing.

Do not Forgive: Infidelity, Unfaithfulness,Betrayal and the Dishonesty of Cheating Hearts

Written by Nevine Al Seidi


Both men and women seem to generously cheat on their other halves, these days. Society in general, seems to think that stories of cheating hearts are nothing to write home about. Research is trying to convince us that hormones, not Herculean horrendousness is to blame. And naturally, when we talk troublesome hormones, we usher to testosterone - what else? Consequently,repparttar ‘scarlet letter' goes to women, while men are left forgiven for their fundamental ‘frailty'. When I do not intend to deliver a sermon onrepparttar 132579 immorality of dishonesty and betrayal, I need to pinpoint to you what unfaithfulness really means in a love relationship and in a marriage. Oncerepparttar 132580 definition of infidelity is determined, it is easier to see clearly what ‘forgiveness' actually means in such a situation.

As a linguist, I always start my cognition journey withrepparttar 132581 thesaurus in hand. Now, what arerepparttar 132582 synonyms of infidelity? Unfaithfulness, falseness, disloyalty, dishonesty, deceit, treachery and treason. Andrepparttar 132583 synonyms of those synonyms? Untrustworthiness, fickleness, duplicity, lying, pretense, inconsistency, capriciousness and vacillation. The sub synonyms of those? Unreliability, undependability, deviousness, changeability, uncertainty, fraudulence, insincerity, untruthfulness, double-dealing, make-believe, charade, contradiction, whimsicality, frivolity, irresponsibility, volatility, indecision, fluctuation and ambivalence. I could still derive sub-categories and feel you getrepparttar 132584 picture already. Then, when a loved one, a partner, a husband, or a wife ‘cheats' on me, he/she is all ofrepparttar 132585 above and guilty of allrepparttar 132586 above. Could there be an excuse for allrepparttar 132587 above-mentioned sins and crimes? Is there a blank space somewhere where we can tuck words like: sympathy, empathy, mercy, compassion or forgiveness? If you are still confused, please buy yourself a thesaurus!

Now, if someone who is guilty of allrepparttar 132588 above declares his love anew? If he is confessing his trespass and asking for a second chance? If he is promising devotion, committment and a fresh start of mutual trust? If he/she says they are yours ‘now'.. will you take them back? Now you find excuses forrepparttar 132589 guilty.. you cite words like flings, crush, passing fantasy, insecurity and sexual seduction. But this cannot apply in any case you were betrayed for more than a few hours when that martyr was duped, dozed and drunk enough to lose their common sense, or ifrepparttar 132590 poor thing has lost his/her mind and is verging on medical insanity. But for someone who dated, fell in love, suffered longing, felt attached, devoted time, designed alibis, determined a relationship, shared his most intimate detail, and desired to be with someone else rather than be with you, it is a different story. If you call a relationship with a person who did that to you love, I wonder what hate is like. If you haverepparttar 132591 heart to invest in such a relationship again, I wonder what you think of yourself.

The world abounds with people who hate us, feel jealous of us, want to harm us or are simply indifferent to our pain and suffering. I believe that to keep one of those in your own home, in your bed, in your arms is sheer madness. We forgive mistakes, but punish sins. And dishonesty is more of a sin of character. It isrepparttar 132592 manifestation of falsehood of feelings we thought were love. Hormones? I would forgive a rat with minimal brain cells. But a sane person who gave me enough reason to fall in love with them and trust them with my life and future deserves one good last kick out ofrepparttar 132593 door. Forget aboutrepparttar 132594 shared resources and friends,repparttar 132595 common dreams,repparttar 132596 binding children,repparttar 132597 single roof,repparttar 132598 long history and good credit. You need to raterepparttar 132599 person you are with anew. Rating him as he is today in reality as you see it clearly. And ask yourself one simple question: Could this berepparttar 132600 closest person to me in this life? The answer must still depend on two things: your sanity and your self-esteem.

Lately, I have had an experience of such a treachery that put me inrepparttar 132601 shoes ofrepparttar 132602 other woman, or sayrepparttar 132603 other girlfriend, when I thought I was fit into Cinderella's. He was in a longterm relationship, not sharing a roof but a life, with someone for more than nine years. Falling for me instantly, spending a minimum of ten hours with me onrepparttar 132604 phone or in person, and giving me allrepparttar 132605 devotion a woman with my ego demanded, before having sex with me, gave me little reason to suspect that he was ‘tied' somewhere else too. When I found out and terminatedrepparttar 132606 relationship, he asked for time to severrepparttar 132607 past bond in a civilized manner - something I totally approved of. Severingrepparttar 132608 relationship with his other girlfriend turned to be a dinner that lasted till 5 am one day, onrepparttar 132609 birthday of his friend, a business meeting onrepparttar 132610 week end that surpassed eight hours and finally, a vacation of four days to a summer resort for Easter onrepparttar 132611 following evening I took him back forrepparttar 132612 third time after swearing his love. My relationship was not lust, no fling, no crush, and no passing fantasy. It was big, solid, effervescent, mature, discerning love story of two people dating beyond their forty years of age and past a marriage with children. Yet,repparttar 132613 minute I realized I was cheated upon when he declared onrepparttar 132614 phone that he was leaving for a vacation (with her) to sort things out and that ‘please-don't-be upset' meant he wanted his cake and eating it too, I almost giggled. My reaction was: " Suffering stops once you call a spade a spade; you know what you are? A phoney!" I did suffer for four weeks or so.. not love and loss, but wretched wrath.

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