By following this link you can hear an interview with me on the excellent Sea Change Radio program about Prout: http://www.cchange.net/2009/01/28/after-capitalism-prout-as-a-sustainable-democratic-economic-model/
Dada Maheshvarananda's Blog concerning PROUT, the Progressive Utilisation Theory
11 March 2009
Sea Change Radio interview
By following this link you can hear an interview with me on the excellent Sea Change Radio program about Prout: http://www.cchange.net/2009/01/28/after-capitalism-prout-as-a-sustainable-democratic-economic-model/
07 March 2009
3-week tour of NE USA
My cell phone in USA (from March 15-April 7): (646) 812-7447
14-17 March, New York City (contact 1-718-898-1603)
19-21 March, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Forum on the Solidarity Economy, "Building Another World" www.populareconomics.org/ussen/?q=node/99 (contact: 1-413-585-0763). I am giving workshops on "Another Life is Possible: Cooperatives in Venezuela and PROUT Economics" Fri, 3-4:30pm and "BioPsychology of Cooperation", Sat. 1-2:30pm,
22 March, Rockville, MD 10:00am – 12:30pm – "Establishing PROUT on the Planet" workshop, AM Center, 2505 Lindley Terrace, Rockville, MD 20850, www.proutaction.org (Contact 571-232-5470) Prout Direct Action Network www.proutaction.org
23 - 24 March: Blacksburg, VA (contact 1-540-552-6910)
25 March, Asheville, NC, Prama Institute, 310 Panhandle Road, Marshall, NC 28753, (828) 649-9408 www.pramainstitute.org
26 March, Blacksburg, VA (contact 1-540-552-6910)
27-28 March, White Plains, NY Lower Hudson Valley Social Forum http://lhvsocialforum.org/ Panel speaker on "The Way Forward: Indigenous Wisdom, Racial Justice and an Alternative Economic Model" at 9:30am, and workshops "Solidarity economy and the worker cooperative movement in Venezuela" in the afternoon (contact 914-843-0874)
29-31 March, Boothbay Harbor, Maine (contact: 207-633-1042)
1-2 April Warren, Vermont (contact: 802-583-2204)
3 April travel
4 April Durham, NC (contact: 919-382-9483)
5 April Raleigh, NC, Cooperative Games workshop 1-3:30pm, Unity Church of the Triangle, 118 S. Person St., Raleigh, NC 27601, (919)832-8324 www.unitytriangle.org.
6 April Human Kindness Foundation Prison-Ashram Project, (contact: 919-383-5160)
7 April New York City (contact 1-718-898-1603)
8 April fly back to Caracas, Venezuela
14-17 March, New York City (contact 1-718-898-1603)
19-21 March, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Forum on the Solidarity Economy, "Building Another World" www.populareconomics.org/ussen/?q=node/99 (contact: 1-413-585-0763). I am giving workshops on "Another Life is Possible: Cooperatives in Venezuela and PROUT Economics" Fri, 3-4:30pm and "BioPsychology of Cooperation", Sat. 1-2:30pm,
22 March, Rockville, MD 10:00am – 12:30pm – "Establishing PROUT on the Planet" workshop, AM Center, 2505 Lindley Terrace, Rockville, MD 20850, www.proutaction.org (Contact 571-232-5470) Prout Direct Action Network www.proutaction.org
23 - 24 March: Blacksburg, VA (contact 1-540-552-6910)
25 March, Asheville, NC, Prama Institute, 310 Panhandle Road, Marshall, NC 28753, (828) 649-9408 www.pramainstitute.org
26 March, Blacksburg, VA (contact 1-540-552-6910)
27-28 March, White Plains, NY Lower Hudson Valley Social Forum http://lhvsocialforum.org/ Panel speaker on "The Way Forward: Indigenous Wisdom, Racial Justice and an Alternative Economic Model" at 9:30am, and workshops "Solidarity economy and the worker cooperative movement in Venezuela" in the afternoon (contact 914-843-0874)
29-31 March, Boothbay Harbor, Maine (contact: 207-633-1042)
1-2 April Warren, Vermont (contact: 802-583-2204)
3 April travel
4 April Durham, NC (contact: 919-382-9483)
5 April Raleigh, NC, Cooperative Games workshop 1-3:30pm, Unity Church of the Triangle, 118 S. Person St., Raleigh, NC 27601, (919)832-8324 www.unitytriangle.org.
6 April Human Kindness Foundation Prison-Ashram Project, (contact: 919-383-5160)
7 April New York City (contact 1-718-898-1603)
8 April fly back to Caracas, Venezuela
The Economy of China: "The Socialist Syndicate"
The Economy of the People’s Republic of China: “The Socialist Syndicate”
By Dr. Szu-chien Hsu (“Cidatma”), Ph.D., University of Columbia, New York. Assistant Research Fellow
at the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica (IPSAS), Taiwan. Areas of Specialization:
Comparative politics, international relations
, People's Republic of China. (Complete CV: http://www.ipsas.sinica.edu.tw/image/users/17/2.pdf
as told to Dada Maheshvarananda
The Communist Party state is the nucleus and the coordinator of the economy. The Party leaders have a very strong political will. They believe in nationalism, Communism, historical materialism and material power. These are the only powers they trust. Collectively they say they want to develop "general national power". However having many faces or “soft power”, a cultural image which they promote, is only a phase of material power.
The Party is very centralized, yet because the country is so vast and the population of over 1.3 billion people, some parts of the machine are out of control. The brain does not always know what the fingers are doing. This is a chronic problem, an internal dilemma. It is also a problem of quality, because agriculture and industry are produced by local, revenue-seeking enterprises.
There are presently 42 billionaires in China, according to Forbes Magazine, each one with an estimated wealth of from 1 to 7.4 billion dollars. There is tremendous energy in the economy, the world's fourth largest with a 6-fold increase of gross domestic product since 1978. The economy functions almost like a decentralized multinational corporation, or a “socialist syndicate”. Yet the Chinese capitalists have developed in a significantly different environment than have other capitalists.
During the last two years there was debate within the Communist Party asking how the very rich people got their wealth, from where did they get their “first barrel of gold”. The investigation revealed that in every case the origin of their wealth came from the Party.
Two years after the death of Mao Zedung in 1976, Premier Deng Xiaoping convinced the Party leaders to initiate market-oriented reforms in the economy. When everyone was poor, no one was motivated to work hard. So the Party leaders decided to allow some people to get rich while still maintaining rigid political control. Once a few got rich, their wealth quickly accumulated, creating a socialist market economy. The economy has fluctuating prices, but is socialist controlled. Their wealth originated from three waves of “rent-seeking”, meaning those with power have access to various resources and can charge rent for them.
The first wave of rent-seeking was the “double price track”. All businesses were originally state-owned, and each used to produce certain items. For example, a state-owned company produced watches. The Party set their production quota at say 100,000 per year, and allocated them coal, steel and other raw materials they needed to produce this. Because prices were fixed, the company paid very low prices for those raw materials. When economic reforms were implemented, the company was informed that as long as they continue produce to produce 100,000 watches per year, they could do whatever they wanted to become more efficient.
First the company manager asked to produce more watches, in order to get more raw materials. The extra raw materials he then sold on the open market for a much higher price. So the company earned enormous profits by the difference between the state-controlled prices and the fluctuating market prices for raw materials.
State-owned enterprises also no longer had to produce their quotas themselves. Instead they could go to the countryside, where 800 million people live and labor is very cheap, and contract others to produce for them. There is a large wealth disparity between the coastal regions and the remainder of the country. Many civilian companies started competing for these contracts. With the free market and free prices businesses, became more efficient, and production prices fell.
The second wave of rent-seeking was in the privatization of inefficient state-owned companies. Who did the Party sell them to? In many cases, they were sold to the managers themselves!
First the manager would ask or bribe the local government inspectors to under value it. Then they went to the local government-owned bank and applied for a business loan to expand. Then the manager would buy the under-valued company from the government with the loan money, so without spending any money, it became the manager’s. After that they were free to fire workers, making the company more efficient and profitable. They also bargained with local government officials how much taxes they have to pay. In all of these transactions with local officials, corruption was possible. All this made the economy livelier.
The third wave of rent-seeking was in competition between different privately-owned enterprises. Some fail, some succeed, the government doesn't care. The most precious, scarce resource in China is land, especially in the city or suburbs. There are two kinds of government-owned land: nation-owned, and collective owned. Nation-owned means the national government owns it. Collective-owned means, for example, 1000 villagers have house-hold ownership of land. City land is owned by the nation. But when a city wants to expand its territory by buying adjacent collective-owned rural land, the city government doesn’t bargain with the people, it just negotiates with the Party chief in the village. This system is rife with corruption. Old houses in the cities get torn down. Who develops this new land? Government-owned companies do.
In the city of Suzhou, the Singapore government was interested and bought a piece of land to the east of the city to start a joint-venture project in 1994, called the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park (CS-SIP). The Singapore government owned a majority share, about 65%, and 35% by the local government. Singapore invested a lot in building infrastructure, internet, high tech access, roads and warehouses. But almost simultaneously the local government started a second industrial park, Suzhou New District (SND) on the other side of the city, and sold the lots to companies at much cheaper rates. So almost no company was buying lots in the Singapore-owned park.
After incurring almost US$90 million losses over five years, Singapore lowered its stake to 35 percent, raising the city government’s stake to 65 percent, and reducing the Singaporean share from a planned 70 sq. km. to just 8 sq. km. The manager of the competing SND became the new manager of the this project, and immediately everything changed. The city re-divided the park, so that factory lots were sold very cheaply around the periphery, while the center of the park was left undeveloped. Companies then moved there from the other park. Once the park was full of factories, the central area became very valuable and apartments were built there, which can be sold for much more than factory land. One year after Singapore lowered its share, the park made its first profit of $3.8 million.
In this example, one can see that the local government is trying to make profit from every layer of revenue they can get. Party leaders start with nothing, but they have total power over land and zoning. Nobody else in this world can relocate people like China can. The government can construct a subway in only one year. People in China who suffer have no voice. Those who benefit are multinational corporations.
So China attracts more and more international investment and gains access to the international market. China bargains for technology transfer.
The cost of land is free to the government. Labor is still very cheap, because labor unions are not allowed to organize. Strikes take place on a small scale, but each time they only ask for more money, nothing more. Workers come from the rural area, and they need money to send home to their families. So they are easy to manage. City people do services.
Rural people are very hard working, getting up at 4am to sell in the markets, for example. People travel and switch jobs.
Everyone in China has a household registration. In the countryside, this entitles you to a piece of land. You can always return to your own land and feed yourself. It might be less than 1 “mu” per person (a mu is a Chinese measurement of land that equals 650 square meters). So a small field and a house, that your one child will inherit. The “One-child Policy” is very strictly enforced in the countryside. If a family has a girl, to get a second child, they need to move to a city, where there are more job opportunities. But if they don't return to their village, they will lose their entitlement to their household registration. Usually every Chinese New Year they return to their village, and often they bring other people back with them to the city.
If you were not born in a city there is a price to pay to obtain city household registration, after which their children will be entitled to go to the city schools. Rural people who have moved to the city but don’t yet have household registration there set up their own unofficial “black” schools. Crimes are often blamed on rural workers, who are sometimes called "peasants", a very derogatory term. But often it is the city boys who do crime.
In China there is no health insurance or welfare system. Hospitals tend to charge very high fees. The cost and quality of treatment differs from city to city, depending on whether the local government has financial capability.
The huge poor population is a key source of wealth. In China, people say there is a "fourth world", that is easy to exploit.
It is a great honor to buy your membership into the Party. Getting opportunities from Party bosses, paying them. This corruption continuing.
The Party can decide to bankrupt you or execute you tomorrow. They control the courts, the media, everything. If injustice is done to you, who will you tell your story to? One businessman, Lai Changxing, fled to Canada in 1999 with his wife and children. He made a fortune by smuggling in the late 1990s. China is trying to extradite him. He knows too much. He operated a prostitution house and filmed officials visiting prostitutes. He also sold intelligence. He even did business with the People’s Liberation Army, using their naval ships to smuggle oil. Another 14 people who were involved in the smuggling operation have been executed. (More than 90 percent of the total executions in the world take place in China.) In February 2009 the Canadian Government granted Lai a work permit.
So the very rich are very scared. They can influence people as long as the Party allows them to do it. The rich capitalists have wealth and can influence and bribe officials, but as long as the government controls everything, they can never have their own voice. When one becomes too rich, the "red eye illness" can come, i.e. jealousy.
From the perspective of P.R. Sarkar’s Social Cycle, the ksattriyan military leaders are still firmly in charge in China. They have allowed capitalist vaeshyans to develop the economy and to gain significant wealth, but not to control the society.
By Dr. Szu-chien Hsu (“Cidatma”), Ph.D., University of Columbia, New York. Assistant Research Fellow
at the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica (IPSAS), Taiwan. Areas of Specialization:
Comparative politics, international relations
, People's Republic of China. (Complete CV: http://www.ipsas.sinica.edu.tw/image/users/17/2.pdf
as told to Dada Maheshvarananda
The Communist Party state is the nucleus and the coordinator of the economy. The Party leaders have a very strong political will. They believe in nationalism, Communism, historical materialism and material power. These are the only powers they trust. Collectively they say they want to develop "general national power". However having many faces or “soft power”, a cultural image which they promote, is only a phase of material power.
The Party is very centralized, yet because the country is so vast and the population of over 1.3 billion people, some parts of the machine are out of control. The brain does not always know what the fingers are doing. This is a chronic problem, an internal dilemma. It is also a problem of quality, because agriculture and industry are produced by local, revenue-seeking enterprises.
There are presently 42 billionaires in China, according to Forbes Magazine, each one with an estimated wealth of from 1 to 7.4 billion dollars. There is tremendous energy in the economy, the world's fourth largest with a 6-fold increase of gross domestic product since 1978. The economy functions almost like a decentralized multinational corporation, or a “socialist syndicate”. Yet the Chinese capitalists have developed in a significantly different environment than have other capitalists.
During the last two years there was debate within the Communist Party asking how the very rich people got their wealth, from where did they get their “first barrel of gold”. The investigation revealed that in every case the origin of their wealth came from the Party.
Two years after the death of Mao Zedung in 1976, Premier Deng Xiaoping convinced the Party leaders to initiate market-oriented reforms in the economy. When everyone was poor, no one was motivated to work hard. So the Party leaders decided to allow some people to get rich while still maintaining rigid political control. Once a few got rich, their wealth quickly accumulated, creating a socialist market economy. The economy has fluctuating prices, but is socialist controlled. Their wealth originated from three waves of “rent-seeking”, meaning those with power have access to various resources and can charge rent for them.
The first wave of rent-seeking was the “double price track”. All businesses were originally state-owned, and each used to produce certain items. For example, a state-owned company produced watches. The Party set their production quota at say 100,000 per year, and allocated them coal, steel and other raw materials they needed to produce this. Because prices were fixed, the company paid very low prices for those raw materials. When economic reforms were implemented, the company was informed that as long as they continue produce to produce 100,000 watches per year, they could do whatever they wanted to become more efficient.
First the company manager asked to produce more watches, in order to get more raw materials. The extra raw materials he then sold on the open market for a much higher price. So the company earned enormous profits by the difference between the state-controlled prices and the fluctuating market prices for raw materials.
State-owned enterprises also no longer had to produce their quotas themselves. Instead they could go to the countryside, where 800 million people live and labor is very cheap, and contract others to produce for them. There is a large wealth disparity between the coastal regions and the remainder of the country. Many civilian companies started competing for these contracts. With the free market and free prices businesses, became more efficient, and production prices fell.
The second wave of rent-seeking was in the privatization of inefficient state-owned companies. Who did the Party sell them to? In many cases, they were sold to the managers themselves!
First the manager would ask or bribe the local government inspectors to under value it. Then they went to the local government-owned bank and applied for a business loan to expand. Then the manager would buy the under-valued company from the government with the loan money, so without spending any money, it became the manager’s. After that they were free to fire workers, making the company more efficient and profitable. They also bargained with local government officials how much taxes they have to pay. In all of these transactions with local officials, corruption was possible. All this made the economy livelier.
The third wave of rent-seeking was in competition between different privately-owned enterprises. Some fail, some succeed, the government doesn't care. The most precious, scarce resource in China is land, especially in the city or suburbs. There are two kinds of government-owned land: nation-owned, and collective owned. Nation-owned means the national government owns it. Collective-owned means, for example, 1000 villagers have house-hold ownership of land. City land is owned by the nation. But when a city wants to expand its territory by buying adjacent collective-owned rural land, the city government doesn’t bargain with the people, it just negotiates with the Party chief in the village. This system is rife with corruption. Old houses in the cities get torn down. Who develops this new land? Government-owned companies do.
In the city of Suzhou, the Singapore government was interested and bought a piece of land to the east of the city to start a joint-venture project in 1994, called the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park (CS-SIP). The Singapore government owned a majority share, about 65%, and 35% by the local government. Singapore invested a lot in building infrastructure, internet, high tech access, roads and warehouses. But almost simultaneously the local government started a second industrial park, Suzhou New District (SND) on the other side of the city, and sold the lots to companies at much cheaper rates. So almost no company was buying lots in the Singapore-owned park.
After incurring almost US$90 million losses over five years, Singapore lowered its stake to 35 percent, raising the city government’s stake to 65 percent, and reducing the Singaporean share from a planned 70 sq. km. to just 8 sq. km. The manager of the competing SND became the new manager of the this project, and immediately everything changed. The city re-divided the park, so that factory lots were sold very cheaply around the periphery, while the center of the park was left undeveloped. Companies then moved there from the other park. Once the park was full of factories, the central area became very valuable and apartments were built there, which can be sold for much more than factory land. One year after Singapore lowered its share, the park made its first profit of $3.8 million.
In this example, one can see that the local government is trying to make profit from every layer of revenue they can get. Party leaders start with nothing, but they have total power over land and zoning. Nobody else in this world can relocate people like China can. The government can construct a subway in only one year. People in China who suffer have no voice. Those who benefit are multinational corporations.
So China attracts more and more international investment and gains access to the international market. China bargains for technology transfer.
The cost of land is free to the government. Labor is still very cheap, because labor unions are not allowed to organize. Strikes take place on a small scale, but each time they only ask for more money, nothing more. Workers come from the rural area, and they need money to send home to their families. So they are easy to manage. City people do services.
Rural people are very hard working, getting up at 4am to sell in the markets, for example. People travel and switch jobs.
Everyone in China has a household registration. In the countryside, this entitles you to a piece of land. You can always return to your own land and feed yourself. It might be less than 1 “mu” per person (a mu is a Chinese measurement of land that equals 650 square meters). So a small field and a house, that your one child will inherit. The “One-child Policy” is very strictly enforced in the countryside. If a family has a girl, to get a second child, they need to move to a city, where there are more job opportunities. But if they don't return to their village, they will lose their entitlement to their household registration. Usually every Chinese New Year they return to their village, and often they bring other people back with them to the city.
If you were not born in a city there is a price to pay to obtain city household registration, after which their children will be entitled to go to the city schools. Rural people who have moved to the city but don’t yet have household registration there set up their own unofficial “black” schools. Crimes are often blamed on rural workers, who are sometimes called "peasants", a very derogatory term. But often it is the city boys who do crime.
In China there is no health insurance or welfare system. Hospitals tend to charge very high fees. The cost and quality of treatment differs from city to city, depending on whether the local government has financial capability.
The huge poor population is a key source of wealth. In China, people say there is a "fourth world", that is easy to exploit.
It is a great honor to buy your membership into the Party. Getting opportunities from Party bosses, paying them. This corruption continuing.
The Party can decide to bankrupt you or execute you tomorrow. They control the courts, the media, everything. If injustice is done to you, who will you tell your story to? One businessman, Lai Changxing, fled to Canada in 1999 with his wife and children. He made a fortune by smuggling in the late 1990s. China is trying to extradite him. He knows too much. He operated a prostitution house and filmed officials visiting prostitutes. He also sold intelligence. He even did business with the People’s Liberation Army, using their naval ships to smuggle oil. Another 14 people who were involved in the smuggling operation have been executed. (More than 90 percent of the total executions in the world take place in China.) In February 2009 the Canadian Government granted Lai a work permit.
So the very rich are very scared. They can influence people as long as the Party allows them to do it. The rich capitalists have wealth and can influence and bribe officials, but as long as the government controls everything, they can never have their own voice. When one becomes too rich, the "red eye illness" can come, i.e. jealousy.
From the perspective of P.R. Sarkar’s Social Cycle, the ksattriyan military leaders are still firmly in charge in China. They have allowed capitalist vaeshyans to develop the economy and to gain significant wealth, but not to control the society.
17 October 2008
THE HUMAN COSTS OF ECONOMIC MELTDOWN AND ITS ALTERNATIVE
The New York Times editorial calls this “the scariest economic free fall the world has seen since 1929,” referring to the Great Depression that caused great suffering to millions. The sentiment is echoed by hundreds of leading economists, bankers and traders whose opinions are quoted daily, as they struggle to explain the economic fallout to the general public. Yet no one is able to confidently predict our economic future.
The US government first bailed out and then, following the lead set by Britain, France, Italy and Spain, began taking over some of the largest financial institutions. How many billions and trillions do they have? Of course the answer is that they already have more than 10 trillion dollars in national debt!
The Human Costs
The human costs of this economic meltdown are only beginning to be felt. More than a million US citizens have lost their homes in the past two years, and a million more are expected to lose their homes in the coming12 months. Yet the United States government continues to pay more of the mortgage costs of rich homeowners, through larger tax deductions, than of poorer homeowners.
United States citizens have lost two trillion dollars in retirement funds, representing about 20 percent of their value since last year, reducing the income of everyone and forcing many older working citizens to continue working even into their late sixties. Countless small investors are losing their savings.
The frozen credit market, which is much more serious than the severe stock market declines, will cause companies around the world, unable to borrow, to layoff workers and unemployment will rise.
The Russian stock market fell by about two-thirds since May. Thus, the global financial crisis has wiped out roughly a trillion dollars in wealth across the country.
The country of Iceland itself is failing. Prime Minister Geir Haarde warned of the threat of “national bankruptcy.” The government seized its three largest banks to prevent their failure, and the currency had already lost half its value before its trade was halted. The country is desperately seeking an emergency loan from Russia or from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However accepting the IMF harsh structural adjustment policies to restore fiscal and monetary stability will hurt everyone, an extraordinary reversal for the island's economy which has been quite affluent for the last decade.
Consumerism and Greed
Greed is the excessive and selfish pursuit of wealth or other material things, without concern whether one’s actions deprive others of necessities. Rather than controlling this instinct, unregulated capitalism encourages it. Some proponents of free market capitalism even go so far as to argue that greed should be considered a positive trait because the race to maximize profits propels the global economy. As the character Gordon Gekko in the film Wall Street said, "Greed... is good!"
The meltdown has been caused in large part by corporations that spend hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising campaigns to make debt sound desirable and risk-free. Their sophisticated ad campaigns and direct mail programs are aimed at every age group, from young teenagers to the elderly. The largest credit card company launched a campaign “Life Takes Visa,” MasterCard did “Priceless” and Citibank taught “Live Richly.” The insidious goal of each of these campaigns was to eliminate negative feelings about going into debt. The creative director of MasterCard's campaign, Jonathan B. Cranin, explained, “One of the tricks in the credit card business is that people have an inherent guilt with spending. What you want is to have people feel good about their purchases.”
It gets nastier, because lenders prey on people who urgently need loans to pay for health care and other necessities. To squeeze more profit from borrowers, US credit card companies have increased interest rates from 17.7 percent in 2005 to 19.1 percent last year, a difference that gives them billions of dollars in extra profits. Average late fees rose from less than $13 in 1994 to $35 in 2007, and fees charged when customers exceed their credit limits more than doubled to from $11 to $26 a month.
The lucrative lending practices of these merchants of debt have led millions of North Americans — young and old, rich and poor — to the brink. However in 2005 the bankruptcy laws were changed. This legislation, proposed by President Bush and driven through Congress by financial services firms, makes it much harder for consumers with modest incomes to escape from under their debt by filing for bankruptcy. The new laws encouraged more reckless lending on the part of lenders, because they could more easily force poor borrowers to repay.
Practices such as these that produced record profits for many banks have shaken the world's financial system to its foundation. As a growing number of people default on payments, banks are recording hundreds of billions in losses, devastating their shareholders. As each bank is realizing that it is holding many bad debts, an increasing distrust is taking place between the institutions, afraid of how many bad debts the other banks are holding.
Global economy vs. Local economy
The solution to the global economic meltdown should be the formation of local economies. The first crucial step of any humane economy is to provide the basic necessities of life to all: food and pure water, clothing, housing, education and medical care. Human beings require these in order to realize their individual potentialities, to develop culturally, to achieve inner fulfilment and self-realization, which many now consider as higher goals of life. What a wonderful world it will be when no one on the planet will have to worry about getting enough money to buy the food, clothes, housing, education and medical care needed for his or her family!
Second, the current centralized economies should be decentralized into economically self-reliant regions. The regions would be defined by geographic conditions, and by the inhabitants’ cultural legacy, language, economic problems and interests. These bioregions would decide their economic future from below, with planning emerging from the communities and supported by central government policies.
Third, each economic region should also be divided into smaller “blocks” or counties, which would provide the basic level of grassroots economic planning. The area of a county is small enough for the planners to understand all the problems of the area; local leaders would be able to solve the problems according to local priorities; planning would be more practical and effective and give quick, positive results.
Fourth, breaking the dependence on petroleum by rejuvenating local agriculture and achieving self-reliance in food, medicines and energy. The importance of rural employment and an adequate standard of living to reduce internal and external migrations is also important.
Each of these solutions is part of the Progressive Utilization Theory or Prout, which proposes a dynamic economy of the people, by the people and for the people. Rejecting profit-making as the goal of the economy, Prout bases its economic policy on consumption; that is, on meeting the actual needs of people. Prout proposes a three-tiered economic system to realize this.
To preserve the creative, innovative spirit of capitalism, but to avoid the destructive, exploiting impact of capital which disregards social costs and environmental degradation, private enterprises should be of small-scale.
The second tier of the Prout economy is formed by cooperatives. This guarantees economic democracy, a decrease in alienation and a more just distribution of wealth. The goal of cooperatives is not profit at any cost, but satisfying the real needs of the community and achieving everyone’s well-being. Members participate in decision making and determine their community’s economic future.
The final tier is industries which have strategic importance and which are too big or too complex to be efficiently managed by a cooperative. For example energy, steel, telecommunications, airlines, etc., should be state-owned and managed by elected boards in the public interest at the national or state levels. These key industries should be run on a no profit, no loss basis, serving all the people of the country.
The Central Bank of each country is such a key industry. However all the other banks should be cooperative credit unions, loaning savings to local businesses, cooperatives and home owners.
A local economy organized in this way would be human-based, resiliant to global market fluctuations and inflation, and able to achieve full employment. Isn't this the type of economy we want?
23 April 2008
San Francisco Bay Area programs May 2008
Thursday May 8, 6pm
Global Exchange
2017 Mission Street, 2nd Floor (16th & Mission)
San Francisco, CA 94110
THE VENEZUELAN REALITY AND PROUT'S CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
What are the social advances made by the "Bolivarian Revolution" since
the election of President Hugo Chavez in 1998? How does this affect
the poverty statistics, and how does it affect the actual lives of the
poor? What shortcomings and problems need to be overcome? How much
pressure can the U.S. government apply to change the government? How
can the principles of Prout assist in transforming society and ending
poverty?
Sponsored by: Global Exchange, www.GlobalExchange.org
Urban Alliance for Sustainability www.UAS.coop
Contact: Scott Stoller – Scott@wholehealing.net, 510.725.0159
------------------------------
Global Exchange
2017 Mission Street, 2nd Floor (16th & Mission)
San Francisco, CA 94110
THE VENEZUELAN REALITY AND PROUT'S CONTRIBUTION TO SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
What are the social advances made by the "Bolivarian Revolution" since
the election of President Hugo Chavez in 1998? How does this affect
the poverty statistics, and how does it affect the actual lives of the
poor? What shortcomings and problems need to be overcome? How much
pressure can the U.S. government apply to change the government? How
can the principles of Prout assist in transforming society and ending
poverty?
Sponsored by: Global Exchange, www.GlobalExchange.org
Urban Alliance for Sustainability www.UAS.coop
Contact: Scott Stoller – Scott@wholehealing.net, 510.725.0159
------------------------------
Friday May 9, 12 noon
Holiday Inn Hotel
1740 1st St. and 101S
San Jose, CA 95112
The Bolivarian Revolution Of Venezuela: Successes, Failures and
Practical Solutions
What are the social advances made by the "Bolivarian Revolution" since
the election of President Hugo Chavez in 1998? How does this affect
the poverty statistics, and how does it affect the actual lives of the
poor? What shortcomings and problems need to be overcome? How much
pressure can the U.S. government apply to change the government? How
can the principles of Prout assist in transforming society and ending
poverty?
Sponsored by: Democratic Party of California, http://www.sccdp.org/
Contact: Arun – sociovision@gmail.com, 510.409.7989
------------------------------
Friday May 9, 7pm
Residence of Saril Kumar
1061 Hickorynut Ct.
Sunnyvale, CA 94087
Another World Is Possible: Prout's New Vision
Dada will be sharing positive examples from around the world, pointing
out the need for a locally-based economy of cooperatives, sustainable
agriculture, ecology, economic self-reliance of every region,
community, participatory democracy, ethical leadership and universal
spiritual values. These are empowering ideas that unite people and
transform lives.
Sponsored by: Prout Research Institute, www.Priven.org
Contact: Saril Kumar – sarilkvp@gmail.com, 408.242.8631
==============================
Saturday May 10, 7pm
Cooperative Grocery of Emeryville
1450 67th Street
Emeryville, CA 94608
Film: Another Life is Possible Cooperatives in Barlovento, Venezuela
Noted Author and Proutist, Dada Maheshvarananda , will facilitate the
discussion after the film screening. See his biography.
Venezuela is undergoing a transformation within its workplace. With
approximately 50,000 cooperatives in operation—the highest number of
any country in the hemisphere—will this economic democracy prove to be
a model for development throughout the region?
More than 40 cooperatives were surveyed in the impoverished rural
district of Barlovento to see just how cooperatives are transforming
people's lives. Workers from a variety of different sectors including
farming, fishing, hotel, restaurant, electrical and sewing co-ops tell
in their own words the stories of their problems, struggles and
successes.
24 minutes, NTSC, with English subtitles.
Sponsored by: The Cooperative Grocery of Emeryville www.TheCoG.org
Contact: Scott Stoller – Scott@WholeHealing.net, 510.725.0159
27 September 2007
Radio Pacifica KPFA interview
I gave a 30-min. interview on Radio Pacifica KPFA Morning Show in San Francisco. You can listen
by following the link, and then going to exactly the half-way point,
at 8:08: http://www.kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=22425
by following the link, and then going to exactly the half-way point,
at 8:08: http://www.kpfa.org/archives
11 February 2007
Accelerated speed in Venezuela!
Our growth is accelerating! After four months of frustration we finally found a way to successfully connect to the Internet by buying a wireless modem with an alternative company, so now our four desktops and four laptops in the office are all connected.
Our volunteer “dream team” has four new members:
Hans van de Werfhorst (“Yogeshvar”), 56, from Netherlands, who has known Prout since 1974, and gave the first Prout lecture in Venezuela in 1978 when he was working in South America for three years as an “acarya” (spiritual teacher).
Taraka, 20, activist from Brazil
Dave Heighway, 35, from Canada, doing graduate studies in development and international relations in Denmark, is here full time until May.
Brian Landever, 24, high school teacher from USA
The work has changed dramatically, with daily morning meetings full of exciting ideas. In addition, several part-time volunteers are helping us, including university students.
Our current projects include:
1. Preparing an interview questionnaire that we will do with 50 cooperatives in the Barlovento area.
2. Preparing to give a series of Prout lectures at Caracas universities.
3. Preparing a project proposal to make an illustrated cooperative training manual.
Because we have so many volunteers now, we are doing several construction projects: renovating the bathroom (finished), building a sleeping loft, lockers, and more office furniture.
The Mondragón Cooperative Corporation in the Basque Country of Spain has accepted José Albarron (“Sarvajiit”), president of the PRIV Board of Directors, for a one-month scholarship training program in cooperatives. They will pay his air ticket, food, lodging and all expenses for this invaluable course during March.
For those of you who, like me, were concerned at President Hugo Chavez’s recent declaration of executive powers, I highly recommend reading the very thoughtful and balanced analysis by our friend, Gregory Wilpert, at: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1953
Our volunteer “dream team” has four new members:
Hans van de Werfhorst (“Yogeshvar”), 56, from Netherlands, who has known Prout since 1974, and gave the first Prout lecture in Venezuela in 1978 when he was working in South America for three years as an “acarya” (spiritual teacher).
Taraka, 20, activist from Brazil
Dave Heighway, 35, from Canada, doing graduate studies in development and international relations in Denmark, is here full time until May.
Brian Landever, 24, high school teacher from USA
The work has changed dramatically, with daily morning meetings full of exciting ideas. In addition, several part-time volunteers are helping us, including university students.
Our current projects include:
1. Preparing an interview questionnaire that we will do with 50 cooperatives in the Barlovento area.
2. Preparing to give a series of Prout lectures at Caracas universities.
3. Preparing a project proposal to make an illustrated cooperative training manual.
Because we have so many volunteers now, we are doing several construction projects: renovating the bathroom (finished), building a sleeping loft, lockers, and more office furniture.
The Mondragón Cooperative Corporation in the Basque Country of Spain has accepted José Albarron (“Sarvajiit”), president of the PRIV Board of Directors, for a one-month scholarship training program in cooperatives. They will pay his air ticket, food, lodging and all expenses for this invaluable course during March.
For those of you who, like me, were concerned at President Hugo Chavez’s recent declaration of executive powers, I highly recommend reading the very thoughtful and balanced analysis by our friend, Gregory Wilpert, at: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/articles.php?artno=1953
13 January 2007
VISIT TO MONDRAGÓN
On the morning of January 3, 2007, when many people were still on holidays, Mikel Lezamiz, Director of Cooperative Dissemination, was waiting for us. Four of us had driven together eight hours through the fog to the city of Mondragón in the Basque Region of northern Spain. Mikel is like a living cooperative encyclopedia – ask him anything, and he remembers the facts.
This is the largest and most successful cooperative network in the world. Begun in the 1950s, today more than 50,000 workers are employed in 120 cooperatives, all of them part of the Mondragón Cooperative Corporation (MCC).
The Mondragón Cooperative Experience has ten basic principles, three more than the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA):
1. Open admission
2. Democratic organization
3. Sovereignity of labor
4. Instrumental and subordinate character of capital
5. Participatory management
6. Payment solidarity
7. Intercooperation
8. Social transformation
9. Universality
10. Education
Payment solidarity is not one of ICA’s stated goals. Mikel explained that the annual starting salary today in every co-op is €13,000-14,000 (approximately US$17,000). A one-to-three wage differential in worker salaries lasted more than 20 years. However in order to avoid losing their top management to private companies, they have raised the highest salaries to 4.5 times more than the minimum in most of the cooperatives, in the Caja Laboral Bank to 8 times more, and the Chief Executive Officer of the Mondragón Cooperative Corporation gets 9 times more, or €126,000 (US$164,000) per year.
All new workers in the Basque Country start with a six to twelve month trial period. If they demonstrate that they are good workers and accept the cooperative system, they can become a member by investing about one year's salary – they can get a bank loan to pay this over 36 months at 3.7% interest. But the benefits of being a cooperative member are impressive. For €30 per month, all members and their families get full health coverage. For €15 per month, members can send their children to the best private school, which is also run as a cooperative. There is subsidized housing, and, most important, they have job security for life! If for any reason their cooperative needs to layoff workers, they will be transferred to another cooperative. Of the 120 cooperatives, only 12 of them lost money last year, and a total of 110 workers had to be relocated to other co-ops.
Education, research and innovation have always been essential to MCC’s growth, and much profits are invested every year into the MCC University (with 4000 students), seven other cooperative schools, and 11 research and development cooperatives. The sophistication and high technology of the hundreds of products produced in cooperative factories make them very competitive throughout Spain and the world, earning the corporation €11 billion in total sales.
Each cooperative is responsible for its own marketing. Most of the cooperatives are industrial or in services – there are only four agricultural cooperatives, and some of some of those are very small. In the same way that the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation is not actively promoting cooperativism to local farmers, they also do not promote it in MCC factories and companies in the other regions of Spain or in 15 other countries; however the MCC board has finally passed a resolution to begin cooperative dissemination throughout their global network of companies. Women comprise 42% of the total cooperative members of Mondragón, but sadly they are elected to only 15% of management positions.
Every cooperative has a general assembly of all members which decides the general policies and strategies of the cooperative and appoints and removes by secret vote the members of its Governing Council and the Account Auditors. The Governing Council in turn appoints the managing director and other directors.
I asked whether they have had problems with dishonesty or corruption. Mikel said, “Each cooperative has both internal and external audits. In addition there is strong social control, meaning our Basque culture and the cooperative spirit that has developed for 50 years encourages group trust and solidarity. So far,” he said, knocking on wood, “there have only been three cases to my knowledge of members stealing from a cooperative. None of them were top managers, all of them were discovered relatively quickly, and all three were dismissed by the general assembly of their respective cooperatives.”
Last year 18 activists from the Brazilian Landless Peoples Movement trained for two months in Mondragon to learn how to start and manage co-ops effectively. This year a similar one-month course will begin in March; the Prout Research Institute is trying to convince SUNACOOP and other Venezuelan organizations to send participants.
We are committed to continuing our study of the very successful Mondragon Cooperative Experience, and we carried many books and materials when we left. Afterwards Mikel sent an email in which he wrote:
“I have been reading on the Internet about Prout, and I have been surprised by its clear and pragmatic ideas of the socio-economic development of communities. I believe that a lot of similarities exist between the philosophy of our Mondragón Cooperative Experience and that of Prout: for example, the importance of economic decentralization (in MCC each cooperative is independent and it maintains its own autonomy), participatory democracy, the balance between the social and the economic, etc. In general, I agree with all that appears in the Prout Study Guide.
“Allow me to make the following reflection. Perhaps the biggest difference that exists between you and us is that we have always avoided being too belligerent with the nearby economic systems (capitalist and communist) to avoid arousing suspicions and to make our own road, being pragmatic in the search for balance between the economic efficiency of our companies and the social development of the region. Our main mission is undoubtedly to generate wealth in the society. Another significant difference (allow me to say it) could be that our cooperativism is more directed at the level of labor. Outside of the company we are not too sensitive with spiritual life (although we do strive for social transformation toward a more fair, equal and united society). I believe that you are more spiritual than us and your philosophy of life and your practice of it is very consistent with the values that you propagate. I would say that you demonstrate cooperativism 24 hours a day, while we do so only during the eight working hours! Of course in our personal and family lives we also try to continue with solidarity and cooperative values, but without being very perfectionist.
“In conclusion I hope that we meet again and that in way or another it improves this world. With sincere cooperative greetings,
“Mikel Lezamiz, Director of Cooperative Diffusion MCC”
This is the largest and most successful cooperative network in the world. Begun in the 1950s, today more than 50,000 workers are employed in 120 cooperatives, all of them part of the Mondragón Cooperative Corporation (MCC).
The Mondragón Cooperative Experience has ten basic principles, three more than the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA):
1. Open admission
2. Democratic organization
3. Sovereignity of labor
4. Instrumental and subordinate character of capital
5. Participatory management
6. Payment solidarity
7. Intercooperation
8. Social transformation
9. Universality
10. Education
Payment solidarity is not one of ICA’s stated goals. Mikel explained that the annual starting salary today in every co-op is €13,000-14,000 (approximately US$17,000). A one-to-three wage differential in worker salaries lasted more than 20 years. However in order to avoid losing their top management to private companies, they have raised the highest salaries to 4.5 times more than the minimum in most of the cooperatives, in the Caja Laboral Bank to 8 times more, and the Chief Executive Officer of the Mondragón Cooperative Corporation gets 9 times more, or €126,000 (US$164,000) per year.
All new workers in the Basque Country start with a six to twelve month trial period. If they demonstrate that they are good workers and accept the cooperative system, they can become a member by investing about one year's salary – they can get a bank loan to pay this over 36 months at 3.7% interest. But the benefits of being a cooperative member are impressive. For €30 per month, all members and their families get full health coverage. For €15 per month, members can send their children to the best private school, which is also run as a cooperative. There is subsidized housing, and, most important, they have job security for life! If for any reason their cooperative needs to layoff workers, they will be transferred to another cooperative. Of the 120 cooperatives, only 12 of them lost money last year, and a total of 110 workers had to be relocated to other co-ops.
Education, research and innovation have always been essential to MCC’s growth, and much profits are invested every year into the MCC University (with 4000 students), seven other cooperative schools, and 11 research and development cooperatives. The sophistication and high technology of the hundreds of products produced in cooperative factories make them very competitive throughout Spain and the world, earning the corporation €11 billion in total sales.
Each cooperative is responsible for its own marketing. Most of the cooperatives are industrial or in services – there are only four agricultural cooperatives, and some of some of those are very small. In the same way that the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation is not actively promoting cooperativism to local farmers, they also do not promote it in MCC factories and companies in the other regions of Spain or in 15 other countries; however the MCC board has finally passed a resolution to begin cooperative dissemination throughout their global network of companies. Women comprise 42% of the total cooperative members of Mondragón, but sadly they are elected to only 15% of management positions.
Every cooperative has a general assembly of all members which decides the general policies and strategies of the cooperative and appoints and removes by secret vote the members of its Governing Council and the Account Auditors. The Governing Council in turn appoints the managing director and other directors.
I asked whether they have had problems with dishonesty or corruption. Mikel said, “Each cooperative has both internal and external audits. In addition there is strong social control, meaning our Basque culture and the cooperative spirit that has developed for 50 years encourages group trust and solidarity. So far,” he said, knocking on wood, “there have only been three cases to my knowledge of members stealing from a cooperative. None of them were top managers, all of them were discovered relatively quickly, and all three were dismissed by the general assembly of their respective cooperatives.”
Last year 18 activists from the Brazilian Landless Peoples Movement trained for two months in Mondragon to learn how to start and manage co-ops effectively. This year a similar one-month course will begin in March; the Prout Research Institute is trying to convince SUNACOOP and other Venezuelan organizations to send participants.
We are committed to continuing our study of the very successful Mondragon Cooperative Experience, and we carried many books and materials when we left. Afterwards Mikel sent an email in which he wrote:
“I have been reading on the Internet about Prout, and I have been surprised by its clear and pragmatic ideas of the socio-economic development of communities. I believe that a lot of similarities exist between the philosophy of our Mondragón Cooperative Experience and that of Prout: for example, the importance of economic decentralization (in MCC each cooperative is independent and it maintains its own autonomy), participatory democracy, the balance between the social and the economic, etc. In general, I agree with all that appears in the Prout Study Guide.
“Allow me to make the following reflection. Perhaps the biggest difference that exists between you and us is that we have always avoided being too belligerent with the nearby economic systems (capitalist and communist) to avoid arousing suspicions and to make our own road, being pragmatic in the search for balance between the economic efficiency of our companies and the social development of the region. Our main mission is undoubtedly to generate wealth in the society. Another significant difference (allow me to say it) could be that our cooperativism is more directed at the level of labor. Outside of the company we are not too sensitive with spiritual life (although we do strive for social transformation toward a more fair, equal and united society). I believe that you are more spiritual than us and your philosophy of life and your practice of it is very consistent with the values that you propagate. I would say that you demonstrate cooperativism 24 hours a day, while we do so only during the eight working hours! Of course in our personal and family lives we also try to continue with solidarity and cooperative values, but without being very perfectionist.
“In conclusion I hope that we meet again and that in way or another it improves this world. With sincere cooperative greetings,
“Mikel Lezamiz, Director of Cooperative Diffusion MCC”
21 September 2006
News of the Prout Research Institute of Venezuela
The effort to buy the perfect house for the PRI-V continues. In the meantime, we have rented temporary office space in the upstairs of the Ananda Marga Kindergarten. Last year a new roof was put on, and this week the bathroom is being repaired, the interior is being painted, two new doors are being hung, and office furniture is being purchased. The school telephone will be transferred to the PRI-V: 00-58-212-633-0131.
We have applied for broadband Internet connection, and the company has promised to install it within 10 days. (Of course things don’t move as quickly in Venezuela as in other countries!) For those who have visited Venezuela, you will realize how happy we are to have employed Diipanii to cook a delicious breakfast and lunch for the staff five days a week!
The first meeting of the Venezuelan Board of Directors has taken place. We are confirming the proposed legal constitution and bylaws of the Institute Foundation. Eight Venezuelan Proutists (Sarvajiit, Satyam, Manujesh, Mrtyunjaya, Tapas, Sulocana, Laksman, Krsna Priya) plus Didi Ananda Sadhana and myself will be members. We will also collectively decide on inviting some other professionals who are sympathizers to sit on the Board.
Eleven senior Proutists in other countries have so far agreed to be on the International Advisory Board of the PRI-V: Hiranmaya (US), Karma Rasa (US), Dharmadeva (Brazilian economist moving to NYC), Dhruva (US), Suprabhata (US), Nirainjana (Palestine/US), Dayabatii (US), Mayajiit (US), Citsvarupa (US), Aradhana (US), Shiva (PhDc Philippines), Jayanta Kumar (Australia). We are still waiting for confirmation from the others we have invited.
Our multi-lingual web site is under construction by professional web-designer Dada Unmantranandajii. We are finishing the various menu texts in English and Spanish, and we hope to have it ready in the first week of October.
Despite his university diploma, his former job as an architect and despite the apartment in Budapest that he owns, the US government refused to give a visa to our LFT Dharmapal so that he could transit in Miami Airport for 150 minutes. Now he is struggling to re-route his air ticket to avoid touching that country that is forbidden to him. Atideva, another excellent brother from Hungary will arrive here this week.
Fabio, in consultation with half a dozen IT experts in other countries, continues to develop the detailed plans for our computer system. The hardware infrastructure will be desktop computers and one (file) server. We will buy the expensive components in Miami and assemble them here. The system will run on Linux (Ubuntu) with Open Office which we are confident will fulfill our needs and be consistent with our ideological direction. The network will be secured via a firewall, and will operate on a RAID system, with two hard disks continually mirroring the stored information, so in case of a disk crash, the other disk can carry on operations seamlessly. Weekly backups on rewritable DVDs stored in different locations will prevent electronic knowledge loss even in catastrophe scenarios.
Asiima is researching about Venezuelan inflation, devaluation and other economic indicators. Other researchers in other countries have started looking into cooperatives as well.
Please send your suggestions and best wishes.
We have applied for broadband Internet connection, and the company has promised to install it within 10 days. (Of course things don’t move as quickly in Venezuela as in other countries!) For those who have visited Venezuela, you will realize how happy we are to have employed Diipanii to cook a delicious breakfast and lunch for the staff five days a week!
The first meeting of the Venezuelan Board of Directors has taken place. We are confirming the proposed legal constitution and bylaws of the Institute Foundation. Eight Venezuelan Proutists (Sarvajiit, Satyam, Manujesh, Mrtyunjaya, Tapas, Sulocana, Laksman, Krsna Priya) plus Didi Ananda Sadhana and myself will be members. We will also collectively decide on inviting some other professionals who are sympathizers to sit on the Board.
Eleven senior Proutists in other countries have so far agreed to be on the International Advisory Board of the PRI-V: Hiranmaya (US), Karma Rasa (US), Dharmadeva (Brazilian economist moving to NYC), Dhruva (US), Suprabhata (US), Nirainjana (Palestine/US), Dayabatii (US), Mayajiit (US), Citsvarupa (US), Aradhana (US), Shiva (PhDc Philippines), Jayanta Kumar (Australia). We are still waiting for confirmation from the others we have invited.
Our multi-lingual web site is under construction by professional web-designer Dada Unmantranandajii. We are finishing the various menu texts in English and Spanish, and we hope to have it ready in the first week of October.
Despite his university diploma, his former job as an architect and despite the apartment in Budapest that he owns, the US government refused to give a visa to our LFT Dharmapal so that he could transit in Miami Airport for 150 minutes. Now he is struggling to re-route his air ticket to avoid touching that country that is forbidden to him. Atideva, another excellent brother from Hungary will arrive here this week.
Fabio, in consultation with half a dozen IT experts in other countries, continues to develop the detailed plans for our computer system. The hardware infrastructure will be desktop computers and one (file) server. We will buy the expensive components in Miami and assemble them here. The system will run on Linux (Ubuntu) with Open Office which we are confident will fulfill our needs and be consistent with our ideological direction. The network will be secured via a firewall, and will operate on a RAID system, with two hard disks continually mirroring the stored information, so in case of a disk crash, the other disk can carry on operations seamlessly. Weekly backups on rewritable DVDs stored in different locations will prevent electronic knowledge loss even in catastrophe scenarios.
Asiima is researching about Venezuelan inflation, devaluation and other economic indicators. Other researchers in other countries have started looking into cooperatives as well.
Please send your suggestions and best wishes.
19 August 2006
Translation of Finnish article
(English translation of the article that appeared in the Finnish magazine of the Service Center for Development Corporation ("Kepa") For more about Kepa, see: www.kepa.fi/EnglishLifestyle: Volunteering
Dada Maheshvarananda, 53, who travels constantly around the world, describes himself with the words "lifetime volunteer". The monk, who is originally from the U.S.A, is a true global citizen. "I have travelled around the world for the last three years, and previously I lived for many years in
Maheshvarananda tries to connect universal, spiritual values to social change in the developing countries. He is involved in different school projects in the developing countries, for according to his opinion education is the best way to alleviate poverty. "I have written dozens of articles about the need for social change, and the book After Capitalism was published in 2003." Maheshvarananda is not content with just writing, but teaches yoga and meditation to prisoners in
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