Report from the 2009 PROUT Global Convention in Denmark

This Global Prout Convention, held July 20-27 2009, was commemorative of the 50th anniversary of P.R. Sarkar's first introduction of Prout. From 27 countries and every continent, 240 participants came (including 42 Wholetimers). Attendees came from as far away as Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Australia, New Zealand, and large contingents came from Portugal and Syria. The proceedings can now be downloaded from http://www.proutworld.org/proceedings/

Planning this event began nearly a year before. Ole Brekke (Vishvashanti) and his family led other Danish Proutists in organizing the infrastructure. He sent more than 200 individual sponsor letters to help participants from economically undeveloped countries get visas to attend.

The venue was beautiful Ananda Gaorii Master Unit in the countryside, one hour from Copenhagen, with lawns and gardens, apple trees and wild cherries. Dada Ambareshvarananda coordinated renovations which were done by Dada Rudranath, Pavan, Ashutosh (Brazil), Pam'kaj (Australia) and Dominic (Poland). Improvements to the kitchen, dining and accommodation facilities, painting, remodeling and cleaning went on for months, transforming the site so it can host large events.

In the lead-up, there was widespread speculation as to the value and even the legitimacy of the convention, which generated a heightened sense of anticipation and exceedingly high attendance.

Travelers who had to stay overnight in Copenhagen also enjoyed a greatly enhanced Global Prout Office, which is almost unrecognizable after renovations supervised by Kamal. Designated cars made many dozens of trips to the local train station to provide free pickups and drop-offs throughout the convention. On arrival, each person received a 40-page souvenir booklet with Prout Action News, thought-provoking strategy articles, workshop topics and job openings in Prout projects.

In keeping with Prout's emphasis on cooperatives, all participants volunteered to join working co-ops that managed different operations of the convention including program, child care, meal preparation, cleaning, etc. The system worked exceedingly well and helped to make everyone feel that they were directly contributing to the success of the program. Despite the pressure of numbers – more than double the expected attendance – the cooperatives were able to make everyone feel alright.

Dada Krtashivananda gave one of the opening speeches as well as an inspiring workshop on spirituality. He reminded everyone of the great legacy of Dada Tadbhavananda who built Ananda Gaorii Master Unit. Dada Vandanananda gave the news of India along with Prout activist representatives from the Vidharba, Utkal and Koushal samajas. Informative presentations were given by the staff of the Prout Research Institute of Venezuela, Gurukula University, Prout College and the successful Prout cooperative café of Iceland. Community development work based on Prout was highlighted in Maharlika (Philippines), Ghana and Haiti. Jaya from Denmark explained about the plight of marginalized workers.

Proutists from all groups and affiliations were present, both young and old. The diversity of participants from throughout Europe and the world and the process of meeting old friends and making new ones created a wonderful family feeling. Blissful kiirtan and deep meditation balanced the burning desire to change the world with the need to be spiritually centered and calm.

Whereas previous Prout conventions usually focused on lectures and classes, this program was generated from the bottom up. “Open Space Technology” allowed everyone to first express their personal interests, and then form groups to discuss how to practically promote Prout to the public. For example, how to present Prout to Western secular audiences, how to utilize social networking tools for this (blogs, wikis, twitter, etc.), how to design exciting Prout training courses, how to use the tremendous opportunity of the global financial crisis, country-wide strategies, Samaj and block level planning, frequently asked questions, Prout in the arts and education, effective websites, and much more. A dozen specific email lists were set up so that groups can continue their efforts and monitor developments from home. Most participants made personal commitments.

Some of the workshops included Ideation, Public Speaking by Dada Pranakrsnananda, Block Level Planning by Ravi, Use of Art in Social Change by Vishvashanti and Jaya, Personal Development by Dada Lokeshananda and Prout's Policy on Drug Abuse by Omkarnath.

The cultural programs each night were amazing, with professional artists like Phil Marriott, Dada Nabhaniilananda and Sukhadev, Vasudeva, Dada Vedaprajinananda, Malinii and Susmita and Didi Ananda Ragamaya. There were also more informal presentations, with songs in different languages.

In the global strategy workshop, we collectively chose to focus this year on the following goals:

1.Modernize Prout website with activist corner to attract young people.
2.Reactivate the Global Times magazine in electronic version.
3.Create exciting Prout training courses in order to create many more Prout activists.
4.Define simple Prout slogans for the public in different languages.
5.Create a powerful Prout response to the global financial crisis.
6.Develop and implement strategies for generating income for Prout.
7.Develop and implement an internal global Prout communication strategy: newsletter, email list, and collecting and spreading good news of Prout activities.
8.Create a system to follow-up all the targets and resolutions made here.
9.Hold yearly Prout conventions here in Ananda Gaorii Master Unit, Denmark. The next one is scheduled for July 20-25, 2010. The next Global Prout Convention is scheduled for Venezuela in early 2011.
10.Further improve our facilities and accommodations here so that even Proutists blissfully enjoy this wonderful place. Please return and bring your friends.

Please contact us if you would like to help with any of these projects. The heart of the convention, all the proceedings, resolutions and valuable resources, will be available within a few days at www.proutworld.org/convention09.

To improve future events, the organizing committee invited feedback through an evaluation questionnaire. 80% of respondents said the spirit of the convention was excellent. Critique included: need to further venue upgrade to overcome the stresses of so many people living together and to reduce meal preparation time; improve communication about program details and changes; too many good workshops and programs running simultaneously. (Organizers are confident most critique received can be acted upon for next year - apart from reducing the number of good program choices!)

In the closing ceremony, two slogans won a popular vote of approval:
“Exploiters look out,
here comes Prout!”

“Without a doubt,
it's time for Prout!”

No convention or conference can change the world. However the dynamism, synergy and inspiration made every participant feel empowered with new ideas and effective tools to make Prout a reality in their local place, as part of a global movement. Together, nothing is impossible.

Global Prout Convention in Copenhagen

"Revolution, Local Economy and Spirituality" Social Forum Plenary Speech

I spoke at the Lower Hudson Valley Social Forum Keynote Panal on March 28th, 2009, in the White Plains High School near New York City. It was a magical moment with organizer Nada Khader, executive director of WESPAC Foundation, the leading force in Westchester County for peace and justice work for over three decades. The first two speakers were Freida Jacques of the Onondaga Nation and Monica Walker, Diversity Officer for Guilford County Schools, North Carolina and CORE trainer with The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond spoke on institutionalized racism.

The transcript of my talk:

I grew up in this country, and when I went to college I had a poster on my wall. Che Guevarra, the great revolutionary, said, "At the risk of sounding ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by feelings of love." I thought, that's what I want to be. I want to be a revolutionary guided by love.

Thirty-five years ago I learned yoga and meditation as a hobby. You know, reduce stress. It transformed my life. I didn't think I could feel so much strength and so much energy and so much passion and so much compassion. It inspired me to dedicate my life to humanity, and that's what this color orange that I wear means, that my life is dedicated to humanity. Many people confuse me with my twin brother from the Congo, Dada Gunamaya, who is also a monk and also dedicated to humanity. You'll notice the resemblance [laughter].

We try to teach revolution. We live in very interesting times right now. Starting about one year ago, there's an economic meltdown, that hasn't stopped. Every two months more than a million North Americans are losing their jobs. Trillions and trillions of dollars of "wealth" are disappearing every day. Financial institutions that are "too big to fail" are requesting the government to suddenly save them. But the government's not saving small business people, or small farmers or small houseowners, they're saving the big banks.

Always the most boring part of the news has been the business news. They like it that way. They don't want you to care about the economics, they use esoteric language so you can't understand what's going on. But it affects every single one of us every day. So they're saying, a little help and it'll be business as usual.

We say no. We're not interested in business as usual. We're not interested in oppression as usual or exploitation as usual, repression as usual. No thank you. We want a fundamental transformation of our world, which is usally called revolution.

What kind of world do we want? I was in Brazil for the first, second and third world social forums. A phenomenal experience. Twenty thousand the first time, seventy thousand people the second time, over a hundred thousand the third and fourth and fifth times. I was in Caracas for th sixth one, and I've been in social forums in Finland and UK and all over the world. And every one of them have the same theme: another world is possible. Well that shared dream, that we can have a better world than we have today, we can give a better world to our kids than this horrible mess that we've got today, gives us a question as well. What kind of world do we want?

You have the right to ask us questions, I also have the right to ask you questions. So what kind of world do you want? Can I hear some responses please?

Without toxins...
Conflict-free...
Equality...
Peace-makers...
Communities...
Sharing of cultures...
Tolerance...
Human rights are guaranteed...
Multiple distribution of wealth, wealth for everybody...
Without exploitation, slavery, racism, sexism...
Where jobs are not outsourced, where everybody who wants a job has a job, a basic human right...
Where you can vote for your boss, choose your boss or be your own boss...
Human needs are primary...
Tolerance and respect...
Housing for everyone...
Stop people from teaching hatred, teach love to everybody...
Time's up, sorry.

I give talks like this in six continents of the world. Always the responses in Poland and Philippines and India and China are always the same. People want a world without injustice, poverty, hunger, sharing the world, with environmental protection for everybody. This is a basic human right. It's such a simple thing when we have the technology. You know to give everyone a house, an education, food, clothing and medical care who doesn't have it would be really expensive. It would cost about 15 percent of the annual budget for arms and military in the world. This is not rocket technology we're talking about to give everybody a house, a place to sleep at night. We can do that. The basic fundamental right that everybody needs is food, clothing, shelter, education and medical care.

So what would a local economy instead of a global economy look like? Instead of outsourcing everything, you make cooperatives. Cooperatives are are cooperatively owned. Make every region as self-reliant as possible.

Prout stands for the Progressive Utilization Theory. It's a model, it's principles that can be applied holistically by any people who like them. It's not anything to be imposed on anybody. But we desperately need alternatives. Noam Chomsky wrote the preface for my book, "After Capitalism", and he said that "Prout's cooperative model... sharing the resources of the planet for the welfare of everyone, deserves our serious consideration."

I think from kindergarten to post-graduate, in schools at every level, kids should be asked, "What kind of world do you want?" It's such a basic question, to question the world we have and to question the world we want.

I also teach yoga and meditation because I believe that through meditation, peace of mind, silence can be attained. Meditation is in every culture of the world, it doesn't cost anything to try it. You can find that inner strength, that inner peace, you can find the spiritual base that is fundamental to all of us here. We are one human family. Everybody is brothers and sisters here. We have to save the plants and animals, who are also our brothers and sisters on this planet. And we have to build a better world. We can do it, it's absolutely necessary.

One small example, in Illinois, Chuck Paprocki has three acres of land and is providing fruits and vegetables to 100 families. He's part of a task force set up a year ago to try to help family farms. But during the last year suddenly this task force, "Local Food, Farms and Jobs" (www.foodfarmsjobs.org) created a report that was published three weeks ago. It states that in the state of Illinois, $45 billion was spent on food every year, and 98 percent of that was purchasing food from out of state. Environmentally this is a disaster, food is traveling 1,500 miles on average to get to your plate. They said, if we just gave 20 percent of all the food that our schools and hospitals serve every day to locally-grown food, it would create thousands of jobs in the state, it would keep money in the state, it would make much more healthy and nutritious food for everybody. I think every state should follow this example, and now it's passing the legislation there, where Democrats and Republicans both approve it.

I think everyone should follow the example of the Obama family: plant an organic vegetable garden in your backyard or on your rooftop or on your window sill. Everybody should do that. What a wonderful example. And we can live in a more holistic, in a better and healthier way, creating in effect a true human society for the first time in history. What an incredible, beautiful world that would be.

I would like to conclude by saying that one teaching of yoga and meditation is that every one of you has a potential, physical, mental and spiritual much more than you can possibly imagine. Become that potential. Become that pioneer. Let us work together, today and for the rest of our lives, to build a better world. To make a world for our children, for humanity, for everyone. Thank you very much.

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/

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

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.

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?

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

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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

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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
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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

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

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