ALT. 2012 by William Thomas THE OTHER 2012 Is This The Year Of Doom Or Bloom? By William Thomas Even though the end of another long Mayan epoch in December 2012 was never meant to presage Apocalypse, a transfixed glance at daily headlines is enough to convince almost anyone that many calamitous predictions for this over-hyped year are already occurring. Simultaneous ecological and economic meltdowns, ballooning post peak oil prices, increasingly weird and wild weather, BP’s ongoing experiment in killing off the Gulf, TEPCO’s global radioactive rapine, and now stepped-up missile-rattling in that other Gulf… you  know the list. And it keeps on growing. Who can hope to dodge every catastrophe converging on this notorious Year of Doom? But something even bigger is going on, something our North America-centric myopia rarely registers with our media-conditioned sensibilities stuck on the shortest range. Even as 5% of the world’s human inhabitants gobble up and waste the bulk of this planet’s shared resources, while ignoring the perspectives, policies and priorities of the remaining 95% –  burgeoning trends toward consciousness and compassion, simplicity and innovation, grassroots activism and practical democracy are seeing national commitments to end oil addiction, embrace appropriate technologies, rein in corporations and enhance civil well-being sweeping the indigenous Americas, Europe, Iceland and beyond.  Do these little-reported developments signal a just-in-time resurgence of human ingenuity and spirit? Already gaining momentum in distant cultures and climes, can these fresh approaches and life-enhancing choices serve as alternative models for a rampant consumer culture colliding with the limits of Just About Everything – especially, imagination. WHO’S THE BIGGEST AND BEST ON THE BLOCK? Lost in the drumbeats of negativity relentlessly broadcast by old-paradigm elites desperately yanking worn-out levers of fear and control are the first radiant “blooms” of a new millennium many longed for but fewer seemed willing to attempt. Now the actual bankruptcy of the “few winners – many losers” capitalist conceit is propelling even the most complacent couch jockey toward a radical reordering of their lives and loves. As alternative economist Hazel Henderson has long pointed out, “Things are getting a lot worse, and a lot better – at the same time.” So where will you put your attention in 2012? Try this pop quiz: Which national grouping of states or provinces boasts the biggest economy in the world? If you answered, “the USA” or “China” score two wrong answers and come to the head of the class where you can listen up… Behind the self-satisfied network pronouncements of imminent euro collapse, the 27 nations and half-billion people belonging to the European Union form the biggest, wealthiest trading bloc on this planet. Together, the EU produces nearly one-third of the world’s entire economy. That’s about as much as the US and China combined. Is all this threatened? You bet. But resiliency will survive. Meanwhile, those “socialist” (read, “compassionate”) European nations spend far less than the USA to achieve universal healthcare, rated by the World Health Organization as the best this side of Cuba, where Michael Moore found a clinic in every neighbourhood. With its priorities seemingly stuck on blowing up places that are not “American” enough, while embracing tax-free corporate socialism bent on transferring all remaining national wealth as rapidly as possible into bankers’ hands, US health care ranks a distant 37^th… Determined to slash oil dependency by creating new rail, river, and marine shipping networks to bypass the Alps and the Pyrenees; replacing domestic airlines with rapid trains, and finding alternatives for heating fuel are the latest endeavours of a Europe Union already twice as energy efficient and laying down half the ecological footprint of the United States, while enjoying far better qualities of living in these uncertain times. The EU also leads in confronting global climate change with renewable energy technologies that are creating hundreds of thousands of new and satisfying jobs. And guess what? The latest research confirms that in countries of “100 Percenters” – which do not foster lopsided wealth disparity – life is better for everybody. THE TEUTONIC TOUCH Don’t disregard Deutschland. While paid maternity leave for both parents is the norm in almost all developed countries, German workers take six weeks of paid vacation every year – plus national holidays. They’re likely to encounter French and Scandinavians also collecting wages while basking on the same beaches. Their employers have learned that happy, rested workers are more productive workers. Yet, Despite its reunification challenges, or perhaps because of them, since 2003, Germany – not China – has led the world in export sales. As Terrance McNally explains, “Germany has somehow managed to create a high-wage, unionized economy without shipping all its jobs abroad or creating a massive trade deficit or any trade deficit at all.” Calling the blinkered exceptionalism of Americans “pathological”, McNally excoriates even so- called progressives who “don't look overseas for models that work.” Here’s another one: In prosperous, socially conscious Germany, “co-determined” boards of directors – half elected by the workers, the other half by shareholders – are mandatory in all companies with more than 2,000 employees. And everyone eligible for social security gets 60% of what they were earning to spend mostly in the German economy. [AlterNet Oct 14/10] Why has this circular logic of prosperous workers contributing to a prosperous economy eluded Washington for so long? Is the European model for personal and national well-being a better use of tax dollars than the pursuit of endless wars and weaponry? Check out the town of Vauban, Germany. Here, most of the 5,300 residents travel by bike or use the ultra-efficient tram service to connect from this suburb to the nearby centre of Freiburg, where residents and physicians have succeeded in taming the microwave dragon. While most Vauban residences enjoy wide balconies and large French windows overlooking quiet, park-like gardens, heat exchangers ensure that apartments are kept constantly topped-up with fresh air at room temperature. Solar panels and “smart” co-generators running on wood chips provide domestic heating and electricity – so much, in fact, that the excess is sold back to power companies at mandated higher rates than the utilities charge. What was their incentive? Avoiding nuclear power. [Independent June 26/09] This same model of localised energy production and efficiency is also catching on in Scandanavia. NON MAIS NON! Meanwhile, as US media and politicians wring their hands over hundreds of fellow Americans “occupying” cities already fully occupied by corporations and their bailed-out bankers, similar dissatisfactions in France have repeatedly brought between one and three million people into the streets of more than 240 cities and towns. Public opinion polls consistently show 70% of stay-at- homers either "supporting" or "sympathetic to" this general strike movement, which refuses to shoulder any further unemployment, foreclosed  homes, reduced job benefits and other assaults on their standards of living. Instead, French citizens are demanding that the crisis they didn’t cause be borne by taxes on the banks, other large corporations and the wealthy. And they have serious clout. How? By not showing up for work. As Dominique Dron explains, “Corporate executives and politicians bark orders, but nothing happens unless and until workers comply. In their solidarity, the French rediscover the taproots of their political power. And their rediscovery ramifies everywhere, including among US workers, students, and others eager for a mass movement against capitalism's crisis and the social costs it imposes.” [Libération July 25/05] SWEDEN STEPS UP Sweden is a small country, half the size of British Columbia with around 9 million people. In 1999, the Swedish Parliament gave unanimous approval to 15 national targets to solve that country's major environmental problems by 2020. Progress is being charted through 70 national indicators of how rapidly and coherently the country is becoming a truly sustainable society. [Eco News Mar/05] This can-do attitude can be scaled up. Were You Born on the Wrong Continent? asks author Thomas Geoghegan. A friend newly returned “from being a journalist for a long time in France” told him in DC, "It's become impossible for me to stay in a carpool with other women journalists because all I do is say to them, 'Oh, it's so much better in France’.” Another journalist pal remarked: "The three most deadly words in American journalism are 'in Sweden they'.”      [AlterNet Oct 14/10; Plan B] SOLAR VILLAGES LIGHT UP THE ANDES The residents of the Puna in the dry Andean highlands of northern Argentina are cut off from everything but the sun. So they decided to live in refashioned "solar villages”. So far, more than 400 “solar energy units” have been installed in 30 towns. These solar cookers, solar water heaters and solar panels are powering family and community kitchens, bread ovens, heaters and hot-water tanks. The parabolic solar cookers of highly polished aluminium are manufactured locally at low cost, providing satisfying, cooperative work as well as fast hot meals below surrounding snowfields. Each solar oven cuts household consumption of increasingly scarce firewood by up to 70%. [Inter Press Service Dec 13/09] The point from Puna is not to try switching to solar cooking in a Montana blizzard. but to start exploring  how we can live more simply and efficiently in 2012. It’s fun! And every step away from fossil fools will make you feel more secure. Skipping these first steps toward voluntary simplicity now will only guarantee lives involuntary simplicity soon enough... BOLIVIA ENSHRINES EQUAL RIGHTS FOR MOM And then there is Bolivia. Struggling to cope with rising temperatures, melting glaciers and more frequent floods, droughts, frosts and mudslides, this Andean nation has come up with the first modern laws granting all of nature equal rights alongside humans. By redefining the country's rich mineral deposits as "blessings", the legislated Law of Mother Earth and is already helping to control corporations and reduce pollution in cities where “bike lanes” are separate roads. Pilloried by the US and Britain in world climate talks for demanding steep carbon emission cuts from the world’s top polluters, Bolivia has established 11 new legal rights for Nature, which is our own nature, after all. These include:  The right to life and to exist  The right to continue vital cycles and processes free from human alteration  The right to pure water and clean air  The right to balance  The right not to be polluted  The right to not have cellular structure modified or genetically altered A draft version of the new law reads: "She is sacred, fertile and the source of life that feeds and cares for all living beings in her womb. She is in permanent balance, harmony and communication with the cosmos. She is comprised of all ecosystems and living beings, and their self- organisation." In a country where mining supplies one-third of the economy, the new law also enshrines the right of nature "to not be affected by mega-infrastructure and development projects that affect the balance of ecosystems and the local inhabitant communities." "It makes world history. Earth is the mother of all", enthuses Vice-President Alvaro García Linera. "It establishes a new relationship between man and nature, the harmony of which must be preserved as a guarantee of its regeneration." Imagine Obama intoning these words in a nationwide address! According to the resurgent indigenous Andean worldview, humans are considered equal to all other forms of life. "Our grandparents taught us that we belong to a big family of plants and animals. We believe that everything in the planet forms part of a big family. We indigenous people can contribute to solving the energy, climate, food and financial crises with our values," says Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca. What’s the rush to get real? Temperatures set to rise a further 3.5C – 4C over the next 100 years would turn much of Bolivia into a desert. Within the next 20 years, most glaciers below 5,000 metres are expected to disappear completely, leaving Bolivia critically short of water for farming, and for cities like La Paz and El Alto. [Guardian Apr 10/11] IN PACHA MAMA WE TRUST Latin America's first indigenous president, former coca grower and outspoken critic of overdeveloped countries doing zip to hold temperatures to a 1C rise has also informed the European parliament that in order the benefit his people, he had to send troops to regain control of his country's gas and oil fields, which were being “looted by foreign companies.” [Guardian May 16/06] No wonder Latin American indigenous groups marginalized since the Spanish conquest 500 years ago see the election of Evo Morales as a global human rights and racial-equity landmark. In an effort to "decolonize" Bolivian society, the country’s new constitution recognizes 36 different indigenous groups and secures a place for them in Congress, while allowing them to practice community justice according to their own customs. Another public referendum has seen a more equitable distribution of land. "We are getting back everything we lost: money and culture," exclaimed Paulina Quiñonez, an Aymaran street vendor in La Paz. "They have robbed so much from us."  Even better, equal religious rights extend the same recognition to the Andean Earth God, Pacha Mama as the Christian God promising “dominion over all.” [Christian Science Monitor Jan 27/09] BRAZILIAN CITY BANS BILLBOARDS The world's fourth-largest metropolis and Brazil's most important city, São Paulo has banned outdoor advertising since 2007. Led by the city's mayor, Gilberto Kassab. São Paulo's "Lei Cidade Limpa" or Clean City Law came from a necessity to combat pollution... pollution of water, sound, air, and the visual. We decided that we should start combating pollution with the most conspicuous sector – visual pollution." Nearly $8 million in fines were issued to cleanse São Paulo of some 15,000 billboards, as well as outdoor video screens and ads on buses. “São Paulo's a very vertical city. That makes it very frenetic. You couldn't even realize the architecture of the old buildings, because all the buildings, all the houses were just covered with billboards and logos and propaganda,” explains Vinicius Galvao, a reporter for Folha de São aulo, Brazil's largest newspaper. “I wrote a big story in my newspaper today that in a lot of parts of the city we never realized there was a big shantytown. People were shocked because they never saw that before, just because there were a lot of billboards covering the area. [Adbusters Aug 21/07] pacha-mama -davidhewsnart.com COSTA RICA SHOOTS FOR CARBON NEUTRALITY In February 2008, Norway, New Zealand, Iceland and Costa Rica made a commitment to go carbon neutral. The Central American country set the hardest target, pledging to balance its carbon emissions with carbon-eating trees by 2021. "We have been at the forefront of the climate change issue for years. A large percentage of our electricity...  already comes from renewable energy sources," said Sergio Musmanni, who is helping lead this tropical government's new national climate change strategy. The Costa Rican government is attempting to offset emissions through stepped-up reforestation. In 2007 alone, a world record five-million trees were planted. The plan is to plant enough trees to cancel out the country's entire greenhouse gas emissions. With more than 30% of the country given over to national parks, Costa Rica also pioneered the concept of eco-tourism in the region. Conscientious conservationists can fly Nature Air, the world’s first avowedly carbon neutral airline. Seated in one of his company's Twin Otter turboprops (the most fuel-efficient aircraft), chief executive Alex Khajavi “looks down fondly at the Pacific coastline, the emerald hills folding down to long white strips of beach,” the BBC reported. . "We are in the right position in this country to be the crucible for the changes that the rest of the world is looking for. We cannot let it fail. We need to get everyone on our side to make this small experiment in something very radical but very necessary, to work," Khajavi urged. "We need to be an example to the rest of the world." [BBC Aug 11/08] They’re already succeeding. According to a new list that ranks nations by correlating their ecological footprint with the happiness of their citizens, Costa Rica is the greenest and happiest country on Earth. First calculated in 2006, “Happy Planet Indicators” measures how much of the Earth's resources nations use and how long and happy a life their citizens enjoy as a result. The second HPI census covers 99% of the world's population. Explains advisor Saamah Abdallah, "We need a new development model that delivers good lives that don't cost the Earth for all." The top 10 “happiest” countries are mostly Latin American. Costa Ricans top the list because they report the highest life satisfaction in the world. They also live slightly longer than Americans, yet have an ecological footprint less than a quarter the size. Still aggressively pursuing obsolete growth-based development models, the three biggest countries – China, India and the USA – are all seeing their happiness drop. Britain is halfway up the Happy Planet Index. The highest placed western nation is the Netherlands. The United States occupies 114th place of 143 nations surveyed. [Guardian July 4/09] GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS TRUMPS GROSS NATIONAL PRODUCTS The concept of Gross National Happiness was born in the small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. Internationally known for high visa fees to reduce the influx of tourists, and for its policy of promoting “national happiness” instead of economic growth, Bhutan measure its well-being by the level of national contentment instead of sheer productivity. This is not just happy talk. Attending a conference on “Economic Development and Happiness” organized by Prime Minister Jigme Thinley in the capital, Thimphu, Peter Singer reported, “Never before have I been at a conference that was taken so seriously by a national government. His address was a thoughtful review of the key issues involved in promoting happiness as a national policy. He then stayed at the conference for the entire two and a half days, and made pertinent contributions to our discussions. At most sessions, several cabinet ministers were also present.” As Singer observes, a Gross National Happiness Commission chaired by the prime minister “screens all new policy proposals put forward by government ministries. Under a new Constitution adopted in 2008, government programs – from agriculture to transportation to foreign trade – must be judged not by the economic benefits they may offer but by the happiness they produce. If a policy is found to be contrary to the goal of promoting gross national well-being, it is sent back for reconsideration.” “You see what a complete dedication to economic development ends up in,” commented Kinley Dorji, Secretary Of Information and Communications. The four pillars of a “happy” society include the economy, culture, the environment and good governance. These attributes are subdivided into nine domains: psychological well-being, ecology, health, education, culture, living standards, time use, community vitality and good governance –  each with its own GNH indexes. “We are even breaking down the time of day: how much time a person spends with family, at work and so on,” Secretary Dorji said. The Dalai Lama supports adopting happiness as an economic indicator. In a letter of support, his Holiness wrote: “As a Buddhist, I believe the purpose of our lives is to overcome suffering and cultivate happiness. But by happiness, I do not only mean the temporary pleasure that is derived from material comfort alone. I am thinking more of the enduring happiness that results from the thorough transformation and development of the mind that can be achieved though the cultivation of such qualities as compassion, patience and wisdom.”   The Dalai Lama went on to comment, “I have discovered in my travels around the world that people in wealthy countries are often not nearly as happy as I had expected them to be, considering their material affluence. Seeing deep poverty side by side with conspicuous consumption in both wealthy and poor countries also indicates that all is not well.” Sounds good, says Dutch economist Sander Tideman. “Gross International Happiness could be the next level of evolution in our economic thinking.” “In Himalayan cultures, the whole society’s economy was meant to serve the quest for happiness,” explains Chairman of the Spirit in Business Network, Sander Tideman. “Our Western culture has defined well-being and the objective of life in purely material terms. We need a model that embraces the totality of life that’s also based on the immaterial reality including, emotions, feelings, water, earth, sunshine, all those softer values that don’t show up in current economic and business models. Once you do that you can create true value. That’s the way forward.” [Project Syndicate Sept 17/11; New York Times May 6/09] HOW “PEOPLE POWER” TOOK BACK THEIR COUNTRY In 2007, the UN's “best country to live in” poll chose this geothermally-powered nation with one chilly toe (the isle of Grimsey) over the Arctic Circle. By October 2008, Iceland was melting down. The krona was in freefall, rated just above the currencies of Zimbabwe and Turkmenistan. Icelandic banks owed more than six-times the country's entire GDP in debt. One of the country's three independent banks had been nationalized. Another was begging customers for money. There were no more instant 100% loans for new Range Rovers. Instead of financing bankers’ insane greed with taxpayer bailouts, Icelanders let their banks default – to the raucous tune of $85 billion. England briefly considered launching “Falklands: The Sequel” to recoup its investments, but backed off after realising that bombing Reykjavik back to the Ice Age would not help either country’s credit-worthiness. “Iceland did the right thing by making sure its payment systems continued to function while creditors, not the taxpayers, shouldered the losses of banks,” opined economist Joseph Stiglitiz. “Ireland’s done all the wrong things, on the other hand. That’s probably the worst model.” By late March 2011, citizens of the world's oldest democracy (established in 930) had managed to effect grassroots change by filling the streets and banging pots and pans. Nine executives were arrested in London and Reykjavik for their alleged responsibility in formenting financial collapse. When Parliament proposed repaying the bankers’ debts to Britain and the Netherlands with a payment of 3,500 million Euros to be paid every month by Icelandic families for 15 years at 5.5% interest, a March 2010 referendum found a resounding 93% of the population refusing to bail out the banksters. Instead, Icelanders demanded early elections. They also decided to draft a new constitution. After electing 25 citizens unaffiliated with any political party (and recommended by at least 30 other citizens) to codify their vision for a new social contract, constituent meetings were streamed on- line, with citizens submitting comments and suggestions as the document took shape. “Due to a lack of transparency, corruption and nepotism, Iceland had the third largest financial meltdown in human history, and it shook us profoundly. The Icelandic people realised that everything we had put our trust in had failed us,” recounted Birgitta Jónsdóttir. “The protests that followed resulted in getting rid of the government, the central bank manager and the head of the financial authority [and rewriting] our constitution. Another demand was that we should have real democratic tools, such as being able to call directly for a national referendum and dissolve parliament.” What better time than now? “We are living in times of crisis. Let's embrace this time for it is the only time real changes are possible by the masses,” Jónsdóttir urged. With “all systems down: banking, education, health, social, political – the most logical thing would be to start a fresh system based on values other than consumerism, which maximises profit and self-destruction. We are strong, the power is ours: we are many, they are few.   Energised by these realisations, “The people of Iceland have demonstrated what citizens of all nations should do:  Reject the fraudulent idea that debts perpetrated by capitalist leaders should be borne by the people.  Arrest and convict capitalist leaders who commit political and economic crimes.” Presidents Bush Jr. and Obama told Americans that they had to pay for the banks’  folly or risk the Mother of All Financial Meltdowns. But Iceland’s basic economic indicators are stronger today than countries that received bail-outs. Unemployment: Iceland: 5.8% Ireland: 14% Greece: 15% Portugal: 12.4% “The people of Iceland twice voted not to repay international debts incurred by banksters, rejecting the idea that the people are responsible for bankster debts,” reminds newly elected MP, Birgitta Jónsdóttir. “This is a way forward for the American political and economic system.” [Quentin Bates, author, Frozen Assets; Pressenza Pressenza International Press Agency Reikjavik Mar 28/11;  rafeonline.com Aug 8/11; Guardian Nov 15/11; hermespress.com; newleftreview.org] Amen. And Happy New Beginnings in 2012!   © William Thomas 2011 (Please cite URL when reposting. Thank you)