Get Wealth Out of Politics

I'm proud to say that this post is about an idea I put forward to the Australian Greens Thought Experiment. And obviously many people have the same thoughts and ideas.

For the past few days, while some of us wind up or down for the Easter break, the Australian Greens have launched an online though experiment to collect innovative ideas from the community. You can add ideas and you have ten votes to give support ideas. You can give from one to three votes to any idea including your own.

There have been many related ideas and votes for renewable energy and urban renewal and education programs all of which are worthwhile projects.

But for the past few days, there has been an idea that keeps topping all the others and it is to:

Amend the constitution to allow only limited government funding of election campaigns.  
This would stop wealthy companies contributing to election campaigns and thus controlling the government and its agenda. Such constitutions are in place in northern Europe.

It's been exciting to see this idea rise from third to second to first and stay there for the past day. Thanks Green thinkers. Let's work out how to make this happen.

Here's a screen grab from just now:

Fossil Fuel Divestment - Bill McKibben

Over the past two years since my last post a lot has happened for me. The most significant being the starting and completing of an Advanced Diploma in Applied Environmental Management with the prodigious Ryde TAFE College. I also attended a few courses on Edible Forest Gardening including 9 days with Dave Jacke. These both conspired to enable me to design and build an Edible Forest Garden in Greystanes. More on that another time.

All this has led me to the question what's next. And for many years I've seen the single most important thing for us to do is to halt climate change.



So my thanks go to GetUp. I snatched up their offer of a free copy of McKibben's latest book 'Oil and Honey'. I'm not going to attempt to give a decent book review, as I'm attempting to ease myself away from my tendency for thorough studying and writing, at least for a while..

Bill narrates his partly reluctant journey to become a leader in the fight to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. From the previous success of 350.org, he convened and led an alliance of organisations in a new campaign to divest individual and college funds from fossil fuel investments. While this progressed, Bill kept himself sane and connected with the natural world by helping his friend, chemical free bee guru Kirk Webster, raise bees and harvest honey.

So until next time. My message of the day is put your bank on notice. Switch to a fossil free bank, and move your Super and investments likewise. Here's how > marketforces.org

Bill McKibben

The Ethic of Reciprocity - Hugh Mackay

You may have heard use of the expression the Golden Rule used just about anywhere. But it primarily refers to the Ethic of Reciprocity:

• we should treat others as we would like others to treat ourselves.

So why should we obey the golden rule? The author of 'The Good Life', Hugh Mackay, puts it this way. We are social creatures who depend on communities to sustain us. Communities don't happen by accident, we have to build and nurture them, and treating others with kindness and respect is the best way to achieve that. (The Australian, Sept 7, 2013)

A few days ago, I heard an interview with Mackay where he discussed this ethic and crystallised perhaps the core problem of Australian politics. Who has not been appalled at the way most of our National leaders persistently sling off at and insult each other in parliament, and in the public media? In regard the important matters of where Australia is going or being led, these displays by our leaders have numbed us onto an the emotional spectrum from despair to apathy.

Such consistent bad behaviour from senior politicians creates voter distrust and ‘tuning out’. With some exceptions, usually outside the two major parties, we rarely observe our leaders engaging deeply and honestly.

It has been argued that politicians are happy for us to tune out, not enrol or turn up to vote, so they get a licence to get away with whatever they like. Yet history shows that disrespect of citizens can lead to varying degrees of revolution. I think most of us would rather not have a violent revolution, but rather see steady progress to a sustainable and fair society.

It would seem that this would require those with power being kinder to those without power. The enormously wealthy citizens supporting and respecting those without.  The view that poor people are bludgers, misunderstands human nature. Truly poor people would love the chance to be self-sufficient, but often they may need years of help to obtain training, self-esteem and a spiritual connection.

Hugh Makay

We need to be civil to those we know and those we don’t, such as other road users, refugees and any citizen of the world and even politicians. How do we treat each other with respect?  A key first step is truly listening to each other. That is the kind of listening where you take time to absorb what they say and what is occurring in the life of that person before responding.

I'm cautious that our leaders may try to appear as if they are listening, without truly connecting with other people, their views and problems.

Now should be the time we take on for ourselves the work of Nelson Mandela and show compassion and respect for your enemies so we can move forward together, not fight each other.