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December 11, 2015 at 12:31 pm	(EOS, Politics, Strategic Analysis, Uncategorized)
Tags: Clickbaits, Culture, Democracy, Establishment, Mass Media, politics
With regular intervals, we are contacted by people who appreciate the EOS very much, but wonder why we are not forming a party and engage ourselves in parliamentary politics. I feel that these concerns merit a response, since I've heard these questions numerous times.
The foremost response is that we do not at this point know whether The Design will work in its current form. We need to focus on being able to test it on a limited scale before attempting to implement any transitional plan in society at large.
That's the main reason.
However, even if we for certain knew that The Design would work, there are still many factors that we must weigh in when deciding what strategies we should pursue when interacting with society. We need to establish a list of available options considering our resources and our ethical guidelines, and apply them wisely.
Overall, all indicators point that forming a party and entering parliamentary politics is one of the least effective ways of distributing time, energy and resources for a movement.
Politics is by definition a zero-sum game.
Party systems with 2-10 parties tend to form and to become fairly stable and contain a predictable stage of parties.
Political parties are in today's society generally prisoners of the concerns of their own membership base and the general public.
Mass media has taken over the role in mobilizing the masses in general.
By forming a party, you will marginalise yourself, but there are other strategies to attain political influence.
Politics in western countries
Since the EOS as an organisation is based in Western Europe, we would definitely encounter the logics of Western politics if we decide to form a political party and stand in elections.
There are several different types of electoral systems in western countries, most of which implicitly seeks to create manageable parliamentary systems. In the Anglo-American sphere, the usual manner in which politicians are elected is through First Past the Post, a system which almost deliberately serves to reduce the amount of choice and force through situations where voters primarily seek to block the candidate they don't like.
Other countries either use proportional systems, or mixed systems, usually with a limit for entrance into parliamentary politics of around 3 – 5% of the active electorate in every election.
That could sound like a small amount, but in a country with circa 10 million people, 7 million of whom are eligible voters of whom six in seven are voting makes for hundreds of thousands of votes. A quick glance on this chart shows how many votes parties in Sweden (a relatively small country) would need to get to be represented.
Moreover, the same kind of parties tend to emerge in most western countries. There tends to be a large left-of-centre party and a large right-of-centre party in most countries, whether they are two-party or multi-party systems. Even the smaller parties tend to have a similar role distribution in multi-party systems. You will always be able to find an ex-communist party, a farmer's party, smaller liberal or conservative parties, a green party and a xenophobic party.
Coalition-building
There are several dilemmas of parliamentary systems, the foremost which is that politicians are supposed to be elected to carry out the promises to their constituents, but only are able to carry out said promises with the support of a parliamentary majority. I think we all have seen US presidents aiming to install reforms that have stalled in a Congress dominated by the opposing party.
In multi-party systems, minor parties usually have to choose between using their parliamentary platform as a stage ground for political campaigns, or to become the junior coalition partner in a government. The latter option often means that they have to give up 70-80% of what they desire in return for achieving 20-30%. It also means that they would have to accept things which are really detested by their voters (one example being how many green voters in Sweden reacted to the recent migration deal).
Ultimately, most western states (by which I mean European states) are run by coalition governments, headed by either a large left-centrist party or a large right-centrist party, supported by one or several minor parties to lock down the necessary parliamentary majority.
That is because most voters – unless there would be a complete crisis as in Greece – generally vote for the parties which are deemed most respectable and moderate. Most voters are as a rule supportive of the political consensus and want to believe in it since they have invested their mortgages and loans into the system.
The Role of Media
Most people still are receiving their main source of information regarding the world from Television, Newspapers and online representations of mainstream media. Due to competition between privately owned media corporations, these sources are compelled to sell in "clickbaits". Such clickbaits are often characterised by images of scantily clad representatives of the female gender, news about gruesome murders and celebrity news (the ideal is probably all three combined), all marked by deceptively attractive headlines.
These tendencies have increased in frequency and intensity since the mass consumption society was formed during the 1950's. Nowadays, newspapers directed towards the working class mostly contain celebrity gossip, sex and violence. It becomes ironic when said newspapers in the same time present themselves as the defenders of human rights, decency, minorities and democracy, while they play an important role in desensitizing human beings regarding violence.
I would claim that the way in which mainstream media and "celebrity news media" choose and present their material for distribution is one of the greatest threats against the civic ideals necessary to uphold a functioning liberal democracy. Instead of striving to create a public spirit characterised by moderation, skepticism and critical thinking, this methodology strives to engage the baser urges of humanity, namely sex, violence and gossip – presenting it in an uncritical manner. The great danger is that it sends a message that it is not only "ok" to be anti-intellectual and driven entirely by impulses, but that it is somehow virtuous.
The clickbait culture also fuels a tendency to reduce one's attention span (probably as an unconscious defence mechanism for one's sanity) until most people have an attention span for less than a minute (which is damning for any political programme which demands five minutes or more to be explained).
This tendency has also crept into politics, leading to an individualization and celebritization of political discourse. It means that instead of focusing on important issues that will determine the future of our society, media is generally pre-occupied with emotionally engaging issues and demanding that politicians act immediately based entirely on emotional factors. This fosters a view on politics where politicians are assumed to just be able to make decisions whether we should have good or bad weather – which de-facto means that mass media is spreading an image of our systems in the west which has no relation with how our systems actually are built.
One example is when Barack Obama fails to pass legislation through Congress, and media is consequently painting him as ineffectual, omitting that the Congress is run by the Republican Party which had as a policy to try to make him fail in his reform programme during his first tenure in office.
Media also often reacts impulsively and generalises reality out of single cases. For example, if an immigrant is murdering two people, suddenly "all immigrants are coming to our shores and murdering people with knives and axes, and we need to close our borders otherwise we'll be overrun by Islam". The next week, maybe an immigrant child is drowning in the Mediterranean, and then the message is "we need to open up our borders and put down all Identity and health controls, for otherwise children will drown in the Mediterranean".
If the perception is that the public wants emotional leaders who make decisions in relation to what mass media is presenting every week, politicians will adapt their public rhetoric and appearances with the discourse presented by media. This is a very tragic process and undermines the spirit of democracy.
In short, mass media creates a culture of clickbaits to stimulate the baser cravings of the public. The public rewards media by buying newspapers, watching TV channels and clicking on articles. Since mass media also takes on the role of presenting reality, this gives them a legitimacy which they can use to influence the political discourse.
Often, mass media chooses to put the spotlight on certain protest groups, which may or may not represent a majority of the electorate. The politicians – which have learnt that their careers could stand or fall on the whim of the media houses – usually cave in to the demands of mass media, thereby awarding mass media extra legitimacy points.
On the surface, this means that we live in a "Spin City democracy", where the main concern of decision-makers is to be presented in good spotlight by mass media rather than to try to serve the electorate with some kind of consistent vision and fulfilling the spirit of their promises. Often, symbolical issues like religious clothing, nudity on bath houses, a student being discriminated against or males that are breast-feeding become more hot topics than really important subjects that will affect everyone. It can be discussed of whether such a discourse is an unintentional effect of the nature of the media landscape or a form of intentional conspiracy.
Really important issues
Really important issues, such as the European Union reforms, new surveillance programmes, international free trade agreements and foreign policy issues that regard the Middle East and Europe-Russia-relations… are simply not covered extensively.
That means that if a new political party would emerge and put emphasis on such issues, the public would simply not be able to comprehend such a programme since it doesn't have the frames of reference provided by the media. It is not important whether it is an intentional design to keep the public away from important issues, or if it's an unintentional consequence.
The Pirate Parties have suffered this fate, since the public perception of them is that they just are populist parties that want to legalize pirating of copyrighted material and pot, rather than that they engage in an important struggle against an emerging international surveillance state.
Another way to affect politically
An observant reader might criticise my statements regarding western politics for being pessimistic. I mean that it is almost impossible for a new party based around serious issues that cannot easily be reduced to clickbaits to emerge as a serious player in national politics.
Also, it is nearly impossible for a smaller party to become a large party. If it refuses to partake in coalition governments, it cannot attract the moderate centrist voters needed to grow. If it partakes in coalition governments, it will either lose core supporters or attract supporters to the senior partner in the coalition.
It will also have to deal with a hostile, indifferent mass media which want information consumers to be impulsive and have the attention span of fruit flies.
There is however a far superior way to engage with politics, and that is to form think tanks.
Think tanks act as political research facilities, political consultants and framers of political discourses. Parties try to contain some of the same functions within them, but are constrained by the need to win votes and pander to mass media. Think tanks can operate independently, and paradoxically engage larger groups of the electorate by courting political parties that already are established.
One example is how the libertarian activist group "the Freedom Front" in Sweden inspired the formation of both a libertarian political party and a libertarian think tank. The party at this day (the Klassiskt Liberala Partiet) have gathered less than a thousand votes, whereas the think tank during one period remote-controlled the Centre Party, a party with hundreds of thousands of votes.
The ethics of such politics are discussable, but then again, the ethics of the entire political system as it works today in a liberal western democracy is discussable.
If we engage in politics, we should definitely do so in a form similar to a think tank, not a political party. That means that we would be able to communicate with all parties in parliaments and operate trans-nationally as well.
Why we are failing (Proposed article)
September 8, 2013 at 12:19 am	(Culture, EOS, General News, Politics, The Monetary System, The war against the Earth)
Tags: 2013, 21st Century. Ecological Crisis, Climate Change, Economic Growth, Environment, EOS, Establishment, Fractional Reserve Banking, Multi-National Corporations, News, Social Justice, the Earth, The Third Millennium, The World, Unemployment, Why we are failing
Okay. Here is another proposed article for the updated EOS website. It is pretty much longer, and I know the articles should be short. But I have comprimed 500 years of human history in less than five pages. It was pretty difficult I must admit.
We want to apologise for the length of this article beforehand.
Energy accounting is originally a concept from the US technocratic movement of the 1930's, which EOS has developed as a conceptual template. To understand what Energy Accounting is and why we want to carefully examine it as a potential replacement to the current monetary system, we need to understand how the current monetary system is working.
Firstly, what is money? Money is a medium of exchange, in order to simplify transactions between various parties. Originating in the mists of the Bronze Age, monetary economies connected regions and allowed trade to perpetuate itself.
Yet, we must understand that early monetary regimes were often tenuous at best, most often local and requiring the protection of patrons with access to mines – most often the dukes, kings, sultans and emperors of the various states of the medieval world.
This could also help to explain our points, as to why our current system is failing in regards to our collective environmental obligations as a species.
Early Monetary Systems
The first monetary systems that arose either arose spontaneously from small communities, which used either a "key good" or a form of "semi-available rarity" as currency. When the first coins were made, in Asia Minor around 2700 years ago, they were made both to stimulate and facilitate trade between villages and towns, and to strengthen the legitimacy and strength of the early state (especially as money often trickled down into market places from the payment of soldiers and other public employees).
The rise of money is a thoroughly complex process, but the rise of the monetarised global system is a relatively recent occurrence. For much of the ancient and medieval world, money was inherently deflationary as its value rested on the control of copper, silver and gold. Thus, the system encouraged savings and hoarding, and retarded the development towards a full-scale monetary price system. In medieval markets, every licensed merchant often had with him his own scale, to judge the value of the money in terms of its weight.
Even in the advanced Roman Empire, only a small fraction of the taxes were collected in the form of money! Most taxes were collected in the shape of grain, minerals and other resources.
Most people in the pre-industrial world were self-sustaining farmers and rural labourers, who for most of the time directly worked to feed themselves from what they could produce out of nature.
The rise of Banking
Trade could be a perilous business during the middle ages. Highwaymen, barons, wars, storms, the Black Death and other occurrences could easily separate a merchant from his gold during the many dangerous voyages through lands and seas.
The wealthiest and most prosperous region of Europe was northern Italy, where the cities never had vanished during the dark centuries following the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
During the Renaissance, cities like Venice, Genoa, Milan, Pisa and Florence sent out merchants far and wide throughout the Mediterranean world, Europe and the Middle East, often exchanging gold for valuable luxury products from the Far East.
To facilitate this exchange, several of the great trading families began to engage in the insurance business. Gold chests were heavy, clumsy and hard to transport, not to speak of being magnets to thieves and pirates. Families like de Medici could specialise in offering securities by depositing the gold (for a fee) to other merchants, giving them a receipt which allowed them to gather the same amount of gold in for example Alexandria, Constantinople or Kaffa.
These firms soon started to lend money to various cities and kingdoms for interest fees. Thus, "banking" in the conventional sense was born.
The rise of Fractional Reserve Banking (FRB)
Given that both the depositing and the lending were made with receipts, the gold would not under normal circumstances leave the confinements of the bank vault. It would be impractical for the client to withdraw it physically, and people who deposited gold in such a bank where often years away travelling. At the same time, borrowing money became increasingly popular, especially as the European monarchies and republics of that era became increasingly dependent on hiring mercenaries to fight their many destructive wars. Banking houses were offered lucrative contracts, without having the necessary deposits to be able to lend money to the states in question.
We don't know exactly when banks started to lend money without having access to the necessary balance to do so, but it stands evidently clear that the temptation and the low risks associated with the scheme would soon or later have coalesced into the practice today known as Fractional Reserve Banking.
Shortly speaking, Fractional Reserve Banking is a mechanism that allows banks to lend more credits than are covered by their deposits. This is possible because of multiple clients depositing their fortunes at the same time, and that it is unlikely that all these clients would remove their deposits at the same time.
Moreover, the clients were thereby obliged to pay back gold which had never existed in the first place, plus interest.
In the terms of laypersons, Fractional Reserve Banking means that you lend out money that you don't have, while those borrowing the non-existent money are forced to pay back in the form of real money, with a little bit more.
Where the alchemists of the dark crypts and poisonous laboratories failed, the perfumed bankers living in the luxurious Venetian and Florentine palaces succeeded.
Sustained capital accumulation and western supremacy
Even though Northern Italy was eventually destroyed, through the violence of the mercenary armies funded by the Italian bankers, Fractional Reserve Banking is a part of the explanation why the western world from the late 15th century and onward managed to create sustained economic, technological and colonial expansion.
The banks of Italy, and later of the Netherlands and Britain, were funding colonial ventures, the development of new weapons and technologies, scientific breakthroughs, commercial enterprises, the booming slave trade and the establishment of the first factories.
The reason why is simple. With a full deposit cover, the bankers who lend money would lend out gold that actually is entrusted them by clients, and thus would be unwilling to support projects that hold high risks for failure, or which are new and untested. Thus, the employment of FRB systems can accumulate and utilise capital more aggressively than the crude agricultural economies previously were able of.
During the 19th century, the gradual gains of trade, colonialism, technical and scientific innovations and capital expansion culminated in a sustained industrial boom that transformed the entire civilization. The modern world was born.
As innovations and growth rushed, however, so did the many bankruptcies and failures. The world grew faster, and with the telegraph and railways, information spread quickly throughout the now very much smaller world. Rumours, true or false, stock rushes, companies and ventures falling apart and the increased competition for more and more scarce resources fuelled an increasing number of bank runs – events when the deposits were retrieved by the clients as a result of a loss in trust. Such events usually led to liquidation of the bank itself, and the destruction of capital – both real and imaginary. It says itself that unregulated capitalism from the 1870s and onward experienced more and more shocks following the collapse of one commercial bank after another.
To counter this development and to restore stability, most developed nations turned towards establishing central banks in order to guarantee the deposits of the commercial banks and their clients – if necessary by sacrificing the interests of the weakest citizens. In the USA for example, the US Congress of 1913, at the behest of the big commercial banks and the US mega-corporations, established the Federal Reserve during the first Wilson administration.
Usually, central banks are a pillar stone in regards to the regulation of interest. This practice is referred to as interventionist monetary policy. After the Second World War, it has usually been coordinated with interventionist financial policies, which are carried out by governments. These policies exist in order to smoothen the business cycles and prevent either overheating or sudden crashes.
Nowadays, the signs are everywhere that the system is crumbling. The dominant power in this system, the United States, is suffering massive de-industrialization and an enormous debt on both the federal and state level. The European economy is stagnating. China is experiencing declining growth rates and increasing environmental pollution and class conflicts.
The system has accumulated a mountain of debt, and we are on the verge of what can spiral out of control and become World War Three.
So, why are we failing?
The addiction to growth
The global monetary system is not dependent on growth because it has the wrong priorities, or because it is in the knees of multi-national corporations and consumerism. It is not dependent on growth because of "human nature" or because of greed, even if greed plays well into the mechanisms it is built on.
It is dependent on growth because it must grow, otherwise it will start to crumble and eventually collapse.
Think of it for a moment.
Only 10-15% of the loans of modern commercial banks have to be covered by the deposits of the customers. Thus, the banks are really lending money from the future. This means that FRB has not only realised alchemy, but also for all purpose invented time-travelling!
Some critics claim that FRB is a system which is creating money from thin air. That is however not entirely true. The money is created in the figurative world by the banks, but then created a second time – this time in the real world – through investments, labour and the production of goods and services. In short, the economic activities of all the corporations and individuals who have been compelled by need or by their dreams and ambitions to ever accept a loan from a bank.
This process allows the capital to multiply itself, and make credits accessible for the future development of the economy.
The hidden danger in this pyramid scheme lies in the fact that it requires permanent economic growth, or at least the belief in permanent economic growth. A growth which can turn the debts in the balance sheets into actual financial assets.
For this to be permeated however, it requires one thing:
The continued destruction of the Earth's biosphere.
For hundreds of millions of years, the Earth has had a complex system for the acquisition and renewal of resources. This system has been characterised by complex relationships unified within an emergent dynamic equilibrium. This system is called "the biosphere".
It can more simply be referred to as Life.
The human civilization is ultimately resting on the fact that we are based on a planet characterised by a wide variety of ecosystems of living beings. The current way in which we are heading is the equivalent to raising a palace while removing the ground and foundation of to gather more materials. It is foolish, and not the least sustainable.
It stands clear to every aware individual that our civilization at the present point is on the route towards causing a new mass extinction amongst the species, bringing the entire Eocene Biosphere to an end.
Climate change is but the most well-known of the challenges ahead. The swift increase of the global average temperature is upsetting weather and drought patterns, affecting the natural cycles of storms, contributing to an accelerating rise of the sea levels, and affecting multiple species of animal and plant life negatively.
There have been several major conferences on this issue, and all of them have either produced semi-failures or complete breakdowns. While the leaders and decision makers have been aware of this issue for the better part of 20 years, they have been unable to turn the development around or even slow down the increasing usage of energy that produces CO2 emissions.
There are many reasons for this monumental human failure. You can blame the oil lobby, the United States, China, the consumers, the politicians, yourself or human nature in general for this failure.
The fact, however, is that it is extremely difficult to enact any kind of meaningful change in the energy sector as long as we have a monetary system that automatically seeks to expand as much as possible, since a contraction will mean that it will be crushed underneath a mountain of debts piling up before it.
At the same time, we are silently allowing a real deficit to constantly grow, by using more resources for every year than the Earth can possibly renew. The continuation of that practice will eventually produce an ecological disaster of hitherto unseen proportions, at least for the last 65 million years.
The EOS alternative (Proposed article)
September 6, 2013 at 10:28 am	(Culture, EOS, Greens, Movements that make a difference, The war against the Earth)
Tags: 21st Century. Ecological Crisis, Climate Change, Earth, Economic Growth, Environment, EOS, Establishment, Global Politics, News, Social Justice, Social sphere, Sustainability, technate, The Culture, The Future, Third World
The human civilization is a very complex series of emergent systems, connected by the multi-level activities of all participants in the process of shaping the future of things to come. Many attempts have been made to devise schemes to describe, envision and realise societies which – only if implemented, and if human beings behaved exactly as expected by the philosopher kings – would certainly solve all of humanity's woes.
Of course, such an outlook would be rubbish. Forget "human nature" as an argument. It is enough to think there are 7 billion people on the planet, as well as thousands of cultures, religions, communities and conditions which adjust their choices according to differing social environments.
Hardly surprising, the realisation that it is very difficult to change the entire way the human civilization is organised makes it a seemingly far more attractive route to change aspects of our current society with the aim of strengthening it so it would better be able to face the challenges of tomorrow. Moreover, swearing in church would create enmity and perhaps even fear by groups who can expect that they must make sacrifices for the common good of the planet and of humanity.
Isn't that, for example, what the term "green growth" has come to mean?
EOS is arguing that a few core tenets of this current dominant socio-economic system are the main culprits behind the global degradation of the biosphere. We will explore these core tenets and how they relate to the system later more thoroughly, but this article is a brief outline over our alternative.
Firstly, we do believe that the current socio-economic system employed on a global scale by the human race is short-sighted, self-destructive, destructive, growth-dependent and virtually forced by its own constraints to consume the biosphere in a frenzy. While reforms can bring us closer to a more harmonious relationship with the planet, no reform which doesn't aim to shift out this system in return for something else will accomplish any sustainable objectives.
This current socio-economic system will die during this century. The only question is if it will collapse to a more primitive form, or if it will be replaced by a more enlightened system. EOS aims to actively contribute towards a shift to a higher evolutionary stage.
As we see it, the system of the future must ultimately serve the progress of Life, without trying to control it.
As we have previously stated, the existence of life is what we must treat as the most valuable thing in the universe. Without life, there would not be experiences, emotions, thoughts, dreams or aspirations, or the opportunity of them. The preservation and elevation of life is a prime imperative.
Thus follows that both the survival of the biosphere and the dreams and aspirations of an individual human being are intimately connected to what EOS aims to achieve. The biosphere should be able to thrive, and all humans should be able to aspire to their highest possible potential within their interests, dreams and skills.
Therefore, we are proposing two conditions with which to decide what goals the new socio-economic system should strive to fulfil.
One: The new socio-economic system should keep the usage of the Earth's resources below 100% of the Earth's annual renewal capacity.
Two: The new socio-economic system should see that no human being goes without access to basic income, housing, education, water, food and a social network.
That means that the new system must have both ecological and social aspects.
The Digital World
February 7, 2013 at 12:35 pm	(Culture, General News, Politics, The war against the Earth)
Tags: 21st Century. Ecological Crisis, Establishment, Fascism, Ideology, Liberalism, News, Social Justice
Right now, one of the major national discussions (in Sweden) is about hate speech on the Internet. It seems like Swedish mainstream media is interested in turning this into a "gun control debate". Yesterday, there was a documentary on Uppdrag Granskning which pointed out the vile hatred and slander directed against young women on the Internet who are expressing opinions related to feminism or immigration. The hatred is directed from the usual suspects – far right trolodytes. It is not directly expressed in the documentary, but implicitly understood, that Uppdrag Granskning (and major liberal and socialist media outlets like Aftonbladet, Expressen and so on) would want to see increased monitoring of the Internet.
To a large extent, the Internet has become a haven for anti-establishment misfits – of whom a large amount are "angry white males". In Sweden, the largest discussion forum is Flashback, and it has come to be defined by a politically reactionary discourse marked by resistance against immigration, anti-feminism, racism, pro-prostitution and pro-drug legalisation opinions, largely reflecting a demographic which is overwhelmingly male, young and angry. Internationally, one of the largest political forums is /pol/ on 4chan, and it is too pock-marked by racism, sexism and anti-egalitarian views.
While I would say that more politeness and less political cheerleading (as opposed to political discussion) is needed in society overall, I do believe this focus on the Internet as something negative is expressing something else. In the 1990s, the Internet was overally viewed as a positive thing for Mainstream Media, because it was a part of the "end-of-the-cold-war"-discourse and because it created growth opportunities on a new market. Now, when alternative media is starting to outcompete traditional media outlets, Mainstream Media feels the old traditional urge to restrict and control the competition in order to keep their privileges. Because legally, the sites are responsible for the content according to Swedish law, not the individual posters.
The Internet knows no borders either. Flashback has been banned in Sweden since the 1990s, but is hosted on foreign servers. Thus, any new regulations would probably lead to counter-reactions.
Ultimately, the political left should not ally with governments and major corporations in curbing the Internet. Firstly because the left too is (?) opposed to the establishment that is and is imagining an alternative world. Secondly, to give the government the authority to control the Internet will create even more resistance, and probably a merger between the xenophobic troglodytes and the Internet anarchists (Wikileaks, Anonymous), which can only retard the development of a progressive social discourse (but that would be beneficial to the powers that be).
The nation-state cannot any more hope to control the currents of information. Of course, hate speech, rabble-rousing, child pornography and other vile and damaging content needs to be removed from the Internet – because real human beings are hurt. That creates the need for a compromise. I believe that instead of fighting the hacker community, civil society would need to approach the hackers and arm them with the authority to act as a cleaning brigade on the Internet, targeting illegal content.
At the same time, I also believe that there has been too much web politics based around the idea that everything that people don't like should be abolished. At the end, that would lead to a conflict where we try to remove things instead of debating them, and no one would be better off because of such censorship.
Apart from the governments and mega-corporations.
Enrique Lescure
/Sequence Director of Relations, the Earth Organisation for Sustainability
The Third Millennium Ideology – Life, Love and Light
December 21, 2012 at 6:58 pm	(Culture, EOS, General News, Greens, Movements that make a difference, Politics, The war against the Earth)
Tags: 2012, 21st Century. Ecological Crisis, Economic Growth, Environment, Era, Establishment, Humanity, Ideology, Liberalism, Life, Mayan Calendar, New Age, News, Social Justice, the Earth, The Third Millennium
The ancient Mayans did believe that the 13th Baktun would end today, when the Earth, the Moon and the Sun would stand in conjunction with the Milky Way Galaxy, forming a cross on the night sky. According to the ancient Meso-American civilization, we would enter a new era today.
Sadly, we will probably not see any change be imposed on us from above. The dominant ideological, social, economic-financial and political systems will still stand entrenched, despite more and more evidence for every passing day that the current system is leading us towards an ecological and social planetary meltdown. There is a profound need for humanity to answer this challenge. The fundamental flaw is to believe that we can keep the current values unevolved, keep the current growth-based system but take away all the "bad sides" without fundamentally altering our values and our global systems.
The dominant ideology of our age, which has largely emerged victorious against its various rivals, is Liberalism. As the name is implying, Liberalism is about stressing personal liberty. That is achieved through the rule of law, constitutionalism, human rights, electoral democracy, personal integrity and property rights and freedom of speech and conscience. The fundamental idea of Liberalism is that the individual is completely free to make her own decisions affecting her own life. To a large extent, political science and economics are largely influenced by the outlook and values of liberalism.
I would argue that most aspects of Liberalism are positive and have brought very much to the progressive development of humanity. The secularization and separation between church and state, the end of feudal power relations, legalistic equality (in theory largely), electoral democracy, independent courts, a postive attitude to science, the civil rights movement, the sexual revolution and the foundation for the greatest increase of material wealth and prosperity in the history of humanity.
Yet, Liberalism today is inherently unable to answer the new challenge, largely caused by the success of that world-view. Instead of feudal monarchies, we have seen the gradual establishment of a global corporate system with an increasingly unaccountable elite. We are still, despite that we produce more than enough food to sustain the entire world population, seeing poverty and famines spread across the planet. At the same time, the waste of food is staggering. Planned obsolence, an association of consumption with status, the spread of urban sprawls, overusage of water and arable soil, dependency on fossil fuels and an inability to stop the very behaviour we have entrenched ourselves in.
To a very large extent, an apathetic and lost citizenry is turning towards a leadership unable to address the current crisis, because they have an ideological and economic blind spot making them unable to connect the various problems we are experiencing.
What I very strongly have come to believe, is that we – the human race – is in need for a new ideology to address the global social and ecological issues of the 3d Millennium. It needs to protect the gains that Liberalism have made since the 18th century and to move farther than Liberalism in the issues of human rights, human dignity and human liberty. Yet, it also has to address the responsibility we human beings have – as a species – towards ourselves and our surroundings. Liberalism, which is mostly an individualistic ideology, is ill-suited to take a look at the wholity of the human existence.
In short, we need a holistic ideology.
Liberalism is an ideology largely connected to the idea of separation, of compartmentalising reality into various different areas. Nobody denies that everything is interconnected, but everything is divided. The labour market is treated as something independent from the financial system, which is treated as something independent from politics which is treated as something independent from ecology. What we would get from such a world-view is ultimately a situation where we can treat two mutually exclusive things as theoretically achievable (the chief example being exponential growth and ecological sustainability).
A holistic ideology would see everything as a part of a greater whole.
That does not imply that the specific, the local and the regional would be subservient to the global goal. Rather, it implies that everything is embedded in a greater context.
A single cell in your body can be studied as an entity in its own right. Yet, it is connected to your organs, which together are making up your body. You are ultimately a member of a society, which is a part of a civilization which is existing on this blue oasis in the Arm of Orion in the Milky Way Galaxy. You and everyone you love and care for are dependent – no matter what you strive for in your own lives – of the health of the larger system you are a part of.
That brings the context.
It is time to discuss the values.
All values are ultimately subjective. Science is not an example of a value system, because it does not imply what is desirable. What is desirable for society to achieve is ultimately dependent on the culture and values of said society. And those values are a creation of the human mind and culture. I am not a relativist and I would claim that having for example an independent judiciary is superior to building a civilization based on human sacrifice to the Angry Volcano God. Nevertheless, values are something which we have to approach with an open discussion.
What has made Liberalism into an ideology which has survived is that it has universal values, which can be applied independent from variations in culture, religion and local/regional norms, thus transcending cultural, ethnic and religious borders. To some extent, it fails, for example in relation to tribal collectivist social systems. Yet, it has been successful because rather than discussing the long-term specific goals for the culture, it provides frames that the culture might not transcend.
The new ideology must also be broad enough to be able to transcend cultural and regional variations.
Thus, I would argue that the values of the new ideology – the Ideology of the Third Millennium – should be based around our role as the dominant species of this planet, and the responsibilities entailed in that role.
In short, the foundational value of what we should be doing should be Life.
Life is not a negation of liberty. Not a repudiation of equality. Not an attack on order.
Life is both a condition and a continuous flow of experiences.
What our future civilization should aim to achieve, is to protect, honour and uphold life on planet Earth. That should be the primary objective. From that follows two goals – to prevent the destruction of the Biosphere and to give all human beings such a high quality of life as possible. These two goals need to be balanced. As many of the liberal freedoms as possible need to be preserved within the new value system. Both positive and negative rights need to be upheld. No human being should go hungry to bed, be homeless, without access to education, healthcare or recreation. No human being should be the subject of political or religious persecution. All human beings should be given access to the means where they can thrive.
What would need to change would be our relationship to possessions, our patterns of production and our acquisition of resources. We need a new system to moderate these relationships, and that system would need to work in a circular rather than linear way, giving back what we take gradually, thus upholding a dynamic equilibrium.
The next value foundational for the new ideology, should be regulating our civilization's way of dealing with Life, from the individual human life to the Biosphere. Ultimately, we should view life as the most valuable existence in the Universe. Life allows us to create meanings, to experience a variety of emotions and to learn and discover. Everything that is alive wants to live, that's the foundation of life. Our civilization should love life, and treat it with reverence, respect, care and creativity. Even when we have to make hard decisions, we need to reflect the fact that we are a product of 1,5 billion years of evolution, that life is rare and that life can flourish where the conditions are the right.
Thus, Love should be our next foundational value.
The third and last value should regulate the way we access knowledge and base our decisions regarding our future civilization. It would entail the manner in which we pursue knowledge and solutions. That manner is by the scientific method, which provides information through peer review verificiation, experimentation and a non-dogmatic, open and transparent process to find available policies. New discoveries should be encouraged and science and research should flourish, but be directed towards the upholding of the values. Enlightenment.
A short summary of the Ideology of the Third Millennium:
Everything is a part of a whole
We should form our civilization
So life can thrive
Discover new paths
In diversity
In liberty
In equality
We are all
A part of the web of life
Whatever you believe
We are all co-dependent
We are all interconnected
We are all fractals
All are one
Happy new era!
Director of the Sequence of Relations
/The Earth Organisation for Sustainability
The rise of nationalism
December 13, 2012 at 12:56 pm	(Culture, General News, Greens, Politics)
Tags: Establishment, Europe, Fascism, Folk Metal, Green Ideology, Greens, Housing, Life, News, Social Justice, Sweden, Unemployment, Xenophobia
All over Europe, East Asia and North America, Nationalism is growing. In Sweden, the third largest party amongst the youth are the xenophobic and formerly fascist Sweden Democrats. The Green Party and the Sweden Democrats are fighting on the national scale on who should be the third largest of Sweden's 8 parties. While the Green Party commands a lead for the third place amongst those born in the 70's, the Sweden Democrats are comfortably winning amongst those born in the 80's and 90's.
I would argue that the comparative failure for the Green Party to get on the drum in terms of youth politics is due to a failure to correspond how their policies could matter to the issues that are important to youths. In Sweden, unemployment lies around 7-8% persistently, and almost 25% of the youths are unemployed. If you are unemployed and low-educated, you will have a problem entering the labour market. Imagine that you and four-hundred other people are hunting the few low-qualified jobs that pop up then and then. It also affects your ability to get housing, especially as the population has increased with over one million since the 1990s (and most new building projects are middle class rather than working class-focused, meaning that youths moving out could stand in lines for years waiting for an affordable place to live in.
With a lack of pro-active initiatives to give people access to a working labour and housing environment, there is no surprise that those affected by the lack of policies or solutions in these areas would look for ways to reduce the population growth, even if it means tougher immigration laws.
Combine that with the stupid, self-defeating, alienating and bizarre policies undertaken by various local public officials regarding Swedish or western cultural heritage, and people become offended. This obsession with symbol issues which pervades through parts of the bureaucratic establishment for unclear reasons is slowly producing a backlash, a generation for which the most rebellious thing is to watch Astrid Lindgren films, eat Kalles Kaviar, hoisting the Swedish flag and listen to Sabaton and Raubtier. In the 1990s and early 2000s, that kind of patriotism was associated with the most backward countryside holdouts – but nowadays it seems to be mainstream, and pervade deeper into society.
The Greens do still have an edge in one area. The youths who are voting on the Greens tend to be more socially conscientous, have a higher degree of knowledge about poverty and sustainability issues and have a higher likelihood to engage in the Green Youth and later the actual Green Party. But Democracy is ultimately an exercise in numbers, not in the quality of the engagement. The recent scandals with the Sweden Democrats could actually even endear them more to the youths working for them.
I would say that the main problem why the Green Party fails to attract support is that they have been "too rational". Triangulation is the most rational vote maximising strategy, and since 2002, the Greens have successfully employed that to move from the fringe to the mainstream. The mainstream, however, is not static, and future voters tend to identify themselves in opposition to the preceding generation. For example, the Baby Boomers identified themselves in opposition to the Greatest Generation, and brought the Civil Rights Era and Sexual Revolution. The yuppies of the 1980's defined themselves in opposition to the hippies of the 1960's, and the young adults of the 1990's and 2000's (gen x-ers) were generally more focused on social justice once again. In Sweden at least, it seems like the rebellious thing today is a form of "revolutionary conservative trolling", marked by such communities as Flashback and news like Avpixlat. The Green Party is not considered hip, it is considered mainstream, and therefore not as "cool" for youths to identify themselves with it.
The Swedish cultural and political establishment is largely composed of Baby Boomers. Therefore, there have been a focus of rebellion against gender roles, patriarchy, christianity, hetero-normativity and traditional bourgeois national symbols such as the monarchy. What they have forgotten is that they are the establishment today, and the reaction is a weird situation where the rebellious thing is to become a christian conservative monarchist. I am certainly not saying that is any form of progressive development. I am just saying that it is the reality of the counter-identity that is formulated more and more. One of the reasons for being anti-establishment is to become something that "the adults" cannot approve of. If you draw a dick on the head of a photo of the Swedish Prime Minister, you can get an expo at a museum or arts gallery. If you draw a traditional national-romanticist painting, you evoke an uproar and become "the black sheep". And one of the points with evoking controverse is to become the black sheep with the establishment.
To win support amongst the youths, the Green Party has to:
– Become more edgy and more hip. Youths generally mistrust establishment politicians.
And more importantly…
– Access the issues of housing and employment in a believable manner.
– Communicate all of that in a "good" way.
Personally, I did actually expect that Gustaf Fridolin would help to increase the support of the Green Party above 10% and possibly up to 15%. The reason why the success of the Greens was stalled is probably that it isn't 2002 any more and Gustaf Fridolin, who was an edgy rebel in the early 2000's, nowadays is like any young politician. At last, he has not become Captain Obvious, like Annie Lööf. Of course, very few people care for politicians that doesn't have any ideas on how to improve the things that matter.
The Green Party has become a very blueish type of Green Party, which is sad. But yet, they have an orientation (internationalist, pro-sustainable) which is agreeable and should be supported. Their ideas are not bad, but they are not the best at advocating them and connecting them to the issues people feel for in everyday life. In contrast, nationalists like the Sweden Democrats have no solutions on any of the major problems today. They don't even see those problems. That is not due to them having a bad programme, but rather a bad ideology. Nationalism, an ideology which is centred around the reveration of the nation, is probably the worst ideology you can have if you want to address global problems. Therefore, the loss of the youth to the far right – which is not only a Swedish phenomenon – represents a large and growing challenge for progressives.
Enrique Lescure,
Sequence of Relations Director,
the Earth Organisation for Sustainability
How the European project could save itself
December 11, 2012 at 12:55 pm	(Culture, General News, Movements that make a difference)
Tags: Austerity, Environment, Establishment, Europe, News, Social Justice, Third World
The current Nobel Peace Prize award in Oslo is an attempt to verify the European Union as a "peace project", comparable with Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and Bono. This decision has been met with criticism both due to the fact that the EU has not always contributed positively to global peace, and as an obvious attempt to try to redefine the EU brand from being associated with a limping economy, an Euro on the verge of collapse, austerity, national governments that are radar-controlled from the ECB in Frankfurt, political ineptitude, xenophobia and the rise of poverty and far right groups.
The enlightened, managerial establishment of Europe (of which the Norwegian Nobel Committee is a part) is using this prize as a form of therapy bear, and hopes that it would make those "unwashed rabble" who are threatened by unemployment, homelessness, a plummeting quality of life and perpetual debt to forget about their plight and come miming together to Beethoven's Ninth. Not gonna happen. The prize does not elevate its possessor, but the possessor can elevate or denigrate the prize. Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama are inspiring human beings who have paid for their convictions by tremendous personal sacrifices. They also are likeable people who are charismatic and photogenic.
For the echo chamber, for the liberal media (of which many newspapers became either irritated at the EU peace prize reward, or stayed indifferent to the whole debacle) and for those who are invested in the EU, they thought it would increase the status of the Union. Instead, it sunk the value of the prize – again, and comes of as a desperate, Soviet-esque attempt to award oneself medals. To a very great extent, the EU has been the darling project for the managerial-bureaucratic classes in the European countries, no matter if these countries are a part of the EU or not. Norway is not a member of the EU, and only 18% of the Norwegians want to join the EU.
It remains a mystery what concrete, tangible things the European Union has done for peace. KFOR? SFOR? Peace-keeping missions? On that ground, the peace prize could have been awarded to every country or organisation that holds peace-keeping troops in other countries. What we should discuss is not so much peace-keeping as peace-building. And what we should discuss in this post is whether the EU brand forever is soiled.
I don't think its necessarily that way.
But "building a Pan-European identity" is so quaint today. It was perhaps progressive back in the 1930's, when most of the world consisted of European colonies. It is true that there are a lot of youths who attach their identity to something larger than their nation – but these youths are not very fond of the European Union and they don't want to be Europeans. They want to be Earthlings. Earth inhabitants. Tellusians.
Terrans.
They travel to Ghana to help with ecological farming projects, are travelling to the Arctic to canoe with Polar Bears, are going down to Palestine, to Sudan, to Chiapas, to Ecuador, to Uganda and to Nepal. They certainly don't identify themselves with Barroso, Van Rompuy or Ashton. They don't want to build a "glorious United States of Europe", because that dream of the interwar era has since long been superceded by a vision of a planet which knows no borders, of a sustainable planet, of a planet where humanity is unified, in the pursuit of life, of human dignity and of ecological sustainability. They are struggling for fair trade, women's rights and indigenous rights.
If the European Union should ever become a successful project, it must engage itself whole-heartedly in the process for global justice, human well-being and sustainability, instead of being a conduit for corporate and bureaucratic interests. Otherwise, it will continue to suffer from shrinking approval rates, until the only logical conclusion is reached.
The European Union will never succeed if it cannot evoke love and passion. And passion can only be evoked by passion.
In the 21st century, it should be passion for the Earth.


SMART metrics with a BANG are a good start for your organization's use of social media tools and channels. In this blog post we focus on how linking key drivers to social media strategy and the annual social media audit helps improve performance.
Article source – Why do social media audits fail?
1. What is a financial audit?
A financial audit can be described as the formal review of a company's financial statements. This is usually done by a certified – chartered or public – accountant. It provides investors with an outside expert's opinion on whether those financial statements are relevant, accurate, complete, and fair representations, also compliant with appropriate guidelines and standards.
2. What is a social media audit (SMA)?
Like its financial counterpart, the social media audit or SMA can be described as a formalized review of an organization's social media activities.
However, contrary to financial audits, social media audits are not guided by government regulations or a set of professional rules and standards.
Instead, organizations must set out their own objectives and agree what will be measured and audited to make such an assessment productive for the company's bottom line. The goal of a social media audit is to express an opinion on the organization under annual assessment based on work done on a test basis.
A social media audit that simply provides "… management with an independent assessment relating to the effectiveness of controls over the organization's social media policies and processes…" is a lost opportunity. The latter would mean collecting information that helps benchmark the company's social media efforts, thereby improving future performance.
A good start to this important exercise is assessing where your company fits in the social media maturity model (see table). As a more novice user of social media channels and platforms, both cost and benefit data are likely not available in much detail from your organization.
In contrast, an adopter-type social media user has a clear idea about direct costs involved, while indirect costs are also carefully monitored. Therefore, the inventory will reveal a rich data set that can better help the company prepare for a regular annual audit.
An inventory will likely reveal some target areas for performance improvement that management will want to commit to, allowing expectations and resource needs to be spelled out, including budgeting for these activities.
However, social media activities must be linked to key drivers the people in charge care about.
To illustrate, using Twitter may help reduce wait times for walk-in traffic at our restaurant during lunch, specifically by tweeting a code to our followers that attracts some regulars to place their order by 11:30, making them eligible for a free soft drink. This helps spread out lunch orders, meaning the kitchen will have an easier time preparing orders quickly and patrons' wait to be seated is also reduced.
Overall attendance of a cancer support group's monthly meeting should increase from about 10 people in Q1 2011 to about 20 by Q1 2012. Of these newcomers, five to ten will be followers of our Facebook page.
The above objective might raise a second, 'so what' question before recommendations for action are made, and that is fine. As previously stated however, if we get more than two or three 'so what' responses in succession, we have the wrong metric and should therefore kill it.
Companies and brands want to conduct social media audits annually to assess how your organization's social media and marketing functions compare with leading practices.
Starting with an inventory, then outlining which key drivers your company wants to link with its social media activities is a good start. However, unless we can show how social media marketing supports key operators, management is unlikely to give this area the attention it so richly deserves.
The properly conducted SMA helps identify target areas for performance improvement and recommendations for how to achieve these objectives. Regular annual social media audits allow you to track progress and watch the trends.
We need SMART metrics with a BANG, while using social media audits to focus on key drivers that show how social media marketing can support strategic objectives, such as sales growth.
Thanks for the flowers Kesinee, #socialmedia #audit is a difficult thing to do and especially the baseline….nnYou need a baseline to start with your training program to eventually get to the Olympics if that is your wish. Same applies with social media. Unfortunately, we more often forget than do it.nnOnce the baseline inventory is done, you can set the objectives and get going. nnOf course, during the audit you can then assess, did we reach those objectives….nnThanks so much for sharing.
Next post: Why does engagement fail?


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Paul Gauguin's Brittany: Where the artist discovered the power of colour
The visits of the French artist Paul Gauguin to Brittany freed him from the shadow of the Impressionists. Nick Trend follows in his footsteps.
Once a source of inspiration for Gauguin, the village of Pont-Aven in Brittany remains strikingly pretty today Photo: Alamy
Haystacks in Brittany, painted by Paul Gauguin in 1890
By Nick Trend
12:43PM BST 30 Sep 2010
As both traveller and painter, Paul Gauguin is, for many, most famous for his time in Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands, where he immortalised (and indulged in) the languorous sensuality of the local girls. Others remember the nine tempestuous weeks he spent in the Yellow House in Arles with Vincent Van Gogh, which culminated with the incident in the local brothel when the Dutchman sliced off part of his ear with a razor.
However, as the exhibition that opened at Tate Modern this week demonstrates, some of the most important episodes of Gauguin's restless, troubled life occurred in the 1880s and 1890s on the south coast of Brittany. It was there that he seemed to get his first taste of the "sauvage", the wildness, which inspired him not only to paint but to find a new visual language.
As he wrote to his friend Émile Schuffenecker in 1888: "I love Brittany. I find a certain wildness and primitiveness here. When my clogs resound on this granite soil, I hear the dull, matt, powerful tone I seek in my painting."
During the next two years, a new style did indeed emerge. Turning his back on the fuzzy, pastel, light-infused Impressionism he had learned from Pissarro, he discovered the power of clear outlines and strong colours.
His palette grew ever bolder, deeper and more counter-intuitive. Reds and yellows dominated strange, almost dreamlike compositions, their subjects viewed from oblique and unexpected angles. Here in Brittany Gauguin found his voice, and art was never the same again.
Gauguin's Brittany landscapes
More arts and culture holidays
Normandy by the Impressionists
Brittany, France: The perfect break
France with the family – Normandy
Cotentin Peninsula: the perfect break
Standing on the bridge in Pont-Aven today, you won't find much in the way of wildness. Instead, there is a profusion of chocolatiers, biscuit shops and jam makers.
It's an incredibly pretty place. Clusters of granite houses, a few thatched, most now roofed in neat squares of slate, gather along the River Aven as it gushes through a series of granite rapids and tumbles down into a narrow saltwater estuary. The transformation is sudden and unexpected, and one which, in previous centuries, paid huge economic dividends for the village.
The granite bedrock channels and splits the cascading river into a series of natural millstreams. By the time Gauguin arrived, there were 14 working watermills, grinding away at the celebrated ble noir (black wheat) that is still used for making the local pancakes. The flour could then be loaded into seagoing ships, which could ride the tide to trade along the coast.
Gauguin came not because of this local prosperity but because, compared with Paris, or the more glamorous resorts in Normandy where the well-to-do Impressionists had gathered, Pont-Aven was cheap, and already colonised by impoverished, experimental artists. He took the place by storm, dominating the conversation in the taverns and guesthouses, and apparently alienating as many of his fellow painters as he inspired.
His statue now stands in the centre of town, and it captures something of this provocative arrogance, which, for me, seems to characterise his life and painting. He also left his mark on the seaside village of Pouldu, on the low cliffs and sand dunes a few miles away. Now a small picturesque resort, it was then a fishing port where farmers came to harvest seaweed from the beach.
Gauguin arrived in the autumn of 1889, after his ill-fated visit to Provence. Inspired no doubt by Van Gogh's own experiments with dramatic colouring, he was also captivated by the power of the sea. He wrote to his friend, who was still recuperating from his injured ear. "We look straight down over an immense seascape. The storms are magnificent, and we paint them directly from the studio, revelling in the sensation of the terrible power of the waves as they beat against the black rocks."
In the end, though, even this remote wildness was not enough for Gauguin. His work flourished, but he still wanted to escape "everything that is artificial and conventional".
Perhaps, too, there was not enough of the sensual side to primitive life that he craved, and would find in such abundance in the South Seas.
For all his apparent fascination with painting girls in traditional Breton costume and bonnets, he made regular efforts to find locals who would model nude. But during the years he spent in Brittany, he found only one who would oblige. And she insisted on keeping her hat on.
Gauguin at Tate Modern
Many important works from the artist's time in Brittany are currently on show in London as part of the first major retrospective of his work in Britain for 50 years. Gauguin, Maker of Myth continues at Tate Modern (www.tate.org.uk) until January 16, 2011. Admission, £13.50.
The Gauguin sights
Here are the key places and landscapes that inspired Gauguin during his time in Brittany.
Pension Gloanec
Gauguin's first lodgings, a boarding house run by Mme Gloanec, are now a newsagent's, and above, the Pont-Aven School of Contemporary Art. It is not open to the public, but you can see Gauguin's window, overlooking the street on the right-hand side of the third floor.
The small museum just up the street from the pension has a small collection of Gauguin's works, including a painting of a clog maker, Le Sabotier, 1888, and a sketch of Breton ladies, Les Deux Têtes, 1894. There are also works by other artists: Paul Sérusier, de Haan and Émlie Bernard.(www.museepontaven.fr; Open every day until end of October, 10am-12.30pm and 2pm-6.30pm. Winter times vary – see website.)
The Bois d'Amour
Follow the river upstream (it bends sharply to the east) and you will find a succession of plaques marking the points where Gauguin and friends painted. At first you pass the back gardens of the village houses, which run down to the water, each with a laundry step, where Gauguin painted the local washerwomen. A little farther upstream the river is broader and more languid as it meanders through beech forest.
The effect of reflected sunlight, the moving shadows of the trees on the water and the deep colours of the turning leaves had a profound effect on the artists, who would stroll up from the Pension Gloanec with their easels on their backs.
Most famously of all, under Gauguin's direction, Sérusier painted an extraordinary composition attempting to capture a bend in the river and the reflection of the trees on the water. Gauguin told him to simplify, to paint the dominant colours in clear "fields". The result, an almost abstract composition of brilliant yellows and mauves, became known as Le Talisman, and a rallying call for a new generation of artists.
Tremalo Chapel
This isolated 16th-century chapel – now used just once a year – contains the carved crucifixion that inspired two of Gauguin's seminal paintings: the Yellow Christ, 1889, and a self-portrait. The door is usually unlocked.
Nizon
Around the time he painted the Yellow Christ, he also composed the Green Christ, a strange Pieta set on the cliffs near Pouldu. In reality, the centre piece is based on a medieval Breton stone carving of the scene at Calvary; it is still outside the church at Nizon, about five minutes' drive from Pont- Aven.
Pouldu Maison-Musée du Pouldu
Gauguin stayed first at the Hotel Destais, now partly rebuilt and renamed the Hotel des Grands Sables, but he later moved down the road to an inn, La Buvette de la Plage, where he lived with Jacob Meyer de Haan, the Dutch painter. As well as painting outside, he and de Hann decorated the dining room of the inn. The original inn does not survive, but a virtual replica has been restored next door, and the wall paintings and bedrooms have been recreated remarkably successfully. (www.museedupouldu.clohars-carnoet.fr; Open 2pm-6pm, Sat and Sun until the end of October. Reopens in May. Entrance €4.)
Cliff walks
Turn left out of the Maison-Musée, work your way south towards to the cliffs, and you will meet a path that follows the coast towards the wide sands and estuary mouth about a mile to the east. Along the path are occasional signboards marking the places and views depicted by Gauguin, works depicting the dunes, cliffs and peasant life such as the seaweed harvesters.
Brittany Basics
The best base is Pont-Aven, where there are several small characterful hotels. Gauguin – recovering from a broken leg sustained in a clog fight at Concarneau – spent some time at what is now called Les Ajoncs d'Or (www.ajoncsdor-pontaven.com) Double rooms (two-star) from €58 (£49). Slightly more comfortable and in a quieter location is the three-star Hôtel La Chaumière Roz Aven (www.hotelpontaven.online.fr), where a double costs from €61. If you like to fall asleep to the sound of running water, the converted mill, the Moulin de Rosmadec (www.moulinderosmadec.com), has four double rooms at €90 a night.
Brittany Ferries (www.brittany-ferries.co.uk) has a good selection of gîtes and cottages in the area.
The pick of the Pont-Aven restaurants is Le Moulin de Rosmadec (see above), which has a beautiful garden on an island in the middle of the river and serves excellent seafood – menus from €28. But Les Ajoncs d'Or also has a good local menu, from €25 a head. Le Talisman, at 4 rue Paul Sérusier (0033 02 9806 0258), is the place for Breton crepes (about €8 each).
Flybe (www.flybe.com) operates to Brest (about an hour's drive from Pont-Aven) from Birmingham, Manchester and Southampton; Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) flies there from Luton. Frequencies vary according to the season. The nearest ferry port to Pont-Aven is Roscoff (about two hours' drive); St Malo is a three-hour drive via Rennes. Brittany Ferries (see left) operates from Plymouth to Roscoff (6hr crossing) and Portsmouth to to St Malo (8-10hrs).
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Piping Up For Technology Part 4 bracelet probe - Enbridge Inc.
It's called the bracelet probe, and it has the potential to save plenty of bling.
Dave Russell has been working in the electromagnetic technology field for more than three decades. After developing evaluation equipment for heat exchangers, boilers, and water mains, his Edmonton-based company, Russell NDE Systems Inc., turned its attention in 2009 to oil and gas pipelines – specifically, insulated pipe.
The resulting inspection tool, the Russell NDE Bracelet Probe, is now used by pipeline inspection companies, and major upstream outfits, in countries around the world.
Enbridge operates the world's longest and most complex crude oil and liquids pipeline system—just under 17,000 miles (about 27,000 kilometers)—with an estimated one to two percent of that network consisting of above-ground piping at our facilities, including pumping stations and terminals.
We conducted our own validation of the technology in 2013 and 2014, inspecting pipes at Enbridge facilities in Edmonton, northern Alberta, Regina, SK, and Superior, WI that are covered with insulation up to 50 mm thick, as well as aluminum jacketing.
We're now working to formally implement and adopt the bracelet probe as a proven method of inspecting corrosion under insulation on facility piping across the Enbridge network.
"The bracelet probe had earned very positive results elsewhere. We also saw a benefit in the technology, and we immediately conducted our own field trials," says Juan Mejia, the Edmonton-based supervisor of Enbridge's Facilities Integrity Technology group.
Enbridge is also exploring the potential of using the bracelet probe to inspect for internal corrosion on our above-ground station and terminal piping that is covered with epoxy coatings or paint.


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Tax Topic: Focusing on Employer Tax Deposit Timing for Restricted Stock Units
By Elizabeth Drigotas
Equity Compensation: Employer Tax Deposits
The IRS recently released a generic legal advice memorandum (GLAM), dated May 18, 2020, that reviews the timing of income inclusion and of tax deposit obligations for a stock-settled option, stock appreciation right (SAR) and restricted stock unit (RSU). The GLAM addresses which date in the process of stock settlement is important for the employment tax deposit rules when the settlement transaction uses a stock transfer agent. Under the general rules, an employer with $100,000 or more to deposit must do so by the next business day. But to simplify this "next day" rule for stock settlement, the IRS has adopted an administrative policy that allows for the tax deposit on stock options to be made within the SEC settlement process window (three days at the time the IRS administrative policy was adopted, now two days). A key point covered in the GLAM is how these deposit rules work in the context of RSUs. For employers, it is important to realize that while, under the facts of the GLAM, the vesting date of the RSUs was determined to be the payment date for valuation and deposit rule time, that result was based on the specific facts of the GLAM. For RSUs, the GLAM stands for the proposition that the payment date is the date the employer initiates settlement of the RSUs in stock. For many RSUs, that will be a different date from the date of vesting. Accordingly, it is important to understand how a specific RSU grant operates and identify the right date for measuring income, as well as timing of the employment tax deposit.
Summary of the GLAM
The three fact patterns presented in the GLAM all involve initiating transfer on one day, December 29, using a transfer agent, with delivery of shares into a participant's account two days later, December 31. In each case, the fair market value (FMV) of the stock is higher on the first date than the second. The GLAM analyzes each situation and concludes that the day on which the transfer is initiated, i.e., December 29, is the key date. For the option and SAR, this is the date of the exercise. The RSU agreement that is described in the GLAM provides for vesting on December 29 and settlement of the award on the same day as vesting. The GLAM concludes that for the RSU, the "payment" date is the date the employer initiated the transfer of the shares, December 29, because this is the date the number of shares is fixed and determinable. It is also the date as of which the employee bears the risk of price fluctuations and has a right to dividends. Accordingly, the deposit timing requirements are tied to December 29 for all three awards.
Application to RSUs
In the context of RSUs, the GLAM's conclusion is very narrow. Employers should consider how that applies to different RSU designs. Under the facts in the GLAM, the RSUs are structured to settle on the date of vesting. As a result, the vesting date and the date the employer initiates payment are the same in the example. For many RSUs, however, the date payment is initiated will be different than vesting. Applying the GLAM to these awards, the key date for inclusion and employment tax deposit will be the date settlement is initiated, not vesting (or two days later when the transfer settles). RSUs commonly provide for a payment date that is different from the vesting date. This is the key distinction between a transfer of restricted stock and a RSU. With restricted stock, there is a transfer on day one, and an ability to make a section 83(b) election, but no ability to defer taxation beyond the lapse of the substantial risk of forfeiture – the participant is already in receipt of the stock, so the lapse is the income point. In contrast, a RSU is a contract right – an unfunded, unsecured promise of payment in the future. There is no initial transfer and a section 83(b) election is not permissible, but the timing of income can be deferred beyond vesting (subject, of course, to compliance with section 409A).
The difference between the timing of vesting and timing of settlement of a RSU is one reason employers choose to grant RSUs instead of restricted stock awards. For example, a RSU may provide that settlement will be made within 30 days of vesting, which then allows the employer to coordinate tax inclusion with a payroll cycle. Further delay beyond vesting is also permissible — nonqualified deferred compensation notionally invested in employer stock is the same as a vested RSU with deferral of income. Whatever it may be called, any arrangement under which the compensation is measured by reference to stock and then settled in stock is a version of a "RSU."
The timing of income for RSUs generally is governed by Internal Revenue Code section 451, which provides for income to a cash-basis taxpayer on actual or constructive receipt. The GLAM discusses section 83 and the employment tax deposit rules, but does not reference section 451 (other than in a brief footnote related to the difference in authority between income tax inclusion and employment tax treatment).
A discussion of section 451 and constructive receipt likely would not have changed the conclusions reached by the GLAM, given the facts set out. Section 83 refers to "transfer" of property, and Treas. Reg. 1.83-e(a)(1) explains that transfer occurs "when the service provider acquires a beneficial ownership" in property, but there is no reason in the Code or tax policy to suggest that a "transfer" is distinct from the more general principles of timing of income inclusion. Under Treas. Reg. 1.451-2, constructive receipt is defined as setting amounts aside for the benefit of the service provider, who can access the funds without substantial limitation. The example given in Treas. Reg. 1. 451-2(a) involves bonus stock and the difference between crediting the stock on corporate books and making it available, clearly illustrating that section 451 is applicable to arrangements that settle in stock and cash. Under the logic of the GLAM, constructive receipt occurs when settlement is initiated.
Whatever the reason section 451 was not addressed, however, the omission should not be read as a suggestion that the general principles of section 451 are not relevant when compensation is paid in stock rather than cash. Rather, the GLAM is best read as saying that for income tax purposes, the date of transfer of stock, which is the same as the date of actual or constructive receipt, is when the settlement process commences, not when it ends. Other than for a grant with the exact same design as the one outlined in the GLAM, for an RSU, the vesting date is not relevant for income tax timing.
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Exploring therapeutics at the forefront of medical science
Pharmacology is the scientific discipline that studies the mechanisms by which drugs alter biological systems in an attempt to improve health and alleviate disease, whereas toxicology is the study of mechanisms by which drugs and chemicals in the environment produce unwanted effects. Together these disciplines encompass the molecular basis of drug action, the actions of drugs on cells, organs, and organisms, the genetic variations in drug action, and drug discovery.
Since more drugs will be introduced in the next ten years than have been discovered in the last one hundred, and since there are increasing needs for selective drug therapeutics, research in pharmacology and toxicology are at the forefront of medical science. The Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Indiana University School of Medicine is actively involved in research and in medical and graduate education.
The department is strongly committed to medical education and also offers outstanding multidisciplinary graduate education in pharmacology and toxicology to train individuals for careers in academics, government or the private sector.
Investigators in the department conduct funded and leading-edge research in modern facilities to advance the understanding of the interactions of chemicals and drugs with living systems and to assist in the development of new therapeutics and strategies to treat disease.
In addition to the research interests of the department's faculty, this outstanding team of educators is dedicated to training future physicians and scientists in the disciplines of pharmacology and toxicology.
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This IU School of Medicine basic science department is nationally known for using the most current technologies to teach pharmacology and toxicology to medical and graduate students. Researchers within the department also have access to state-of-the-art research equipment for their medical research programs.
Researchers within the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology are using state-of-the-art approaches to study biological mechanisms that lead to potential targets for the treatment of cancer, infectious and neurological diseases, and toxicological effects.
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Republicans again demand Biden end vaccine mandate 'purging' Armed Forces
'The Department has abused the trust and good faith of loyal servicemembers.'
Thu Sep 15, 2022 - 5:40 pm EDT
WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) – The Biden administration is bringing about a readiness crisis and "ideological purge" in the U.S. Armed Forces via its COVID-19 vaccine mandates, three Republican lawmakers argue in a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
"If 75,000 soldiers are discharged, it begs the question whether the Army will be able to replace them," argues the letter by U.S. Reps. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, and Chip Roy of Texas, which was obtained by Breitbart News. "At the very end of the fiscal year, the Army has only met 52% of its FY22 recruiting goal. How will it recruit another 75,000 troops beyond its annual target to account for vaccine-related discharges?"
"The Department has abused the trust and good faith of loyal servicemembers by handling vaccine exemptions in a sluggish and disingenuous manner," and by treating the comparative few who do receive exemptions like "second class soldiers," alleges the letter, which was co-signed by 54 other Republican lawmakers and
"According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 40 percent of men aged 18-24 years old have refused vaccination for Covid-19," they argue. "In the Southern United States, an area responsible for half of the nation's enlistments, that number is over 50 percent. Off the bat, your vaccine mandate disqualifies more than 40 percent of the Army's target demographic from service nationwide, and over half of the individuals in the most fertile recruiting grounds."
"In the past, you have insisted the Covid-19 vaccine mandate is an imperative for readiness, but increasing amounts of data raise legitimate questions about your assertion," they note. "We also know that natural immunity provides better protection against infection and death than existing Covid vaccines, yet the Department still refuses to recognize it in lieu of vaccination."
Last August, at the direction of President Joe Biden, Austin ordered the secretaries of all military branches to "immediately begin full [COVID] vaccination of all members of the Armed Forces" and "impose ambitious timelines for implementation." The majority of service members complied, but tens of thousands remain unvaccinated, with many seeking exemptions.
In the Army, the approval rate for religious exemptions so far stands at just one percent, while the approval rate for medical exemptions is only slightly higher at three percent. By contrast, in December the military began discharging soldiers for refusing the shots. The discharges have prompted legal challenges that have so far been neglected by the U.S. Supreme Court.
PETITION: Canonize Navy chaplain Fr. Capodanno for giving his life to save souls
Let's get to 9000!
Fr. Vincent Capodanno was among the very best of us, and his heroic offering of his life means he deserves to be declared a saint by the Catholic Church.
The Navy chaplain laid down his life to save souls on the battlefield in Vietnam, giving Marines the Last Rites as they lay dying.
Riddled with bullets while ministering on the front line, Fr. Capodanno's cause for canonization is now being considered by the Vatican.
SIGN: Fr. Capodanno deserves to be canonized, having laid down his life for his friends.
Fr. Capodanno's cause has suffered a setback in recent weeks when a group of theologians recommended the Vatican suspend the process, despite the priest already being made a Servant of God by the Church.
One of the objectors claimed it would be inappropriate to canonize the Navy chaplain due to the military conflict in Ukraine, but this is only consultative advice and the Holy See can nonetheless proceed with raising Fr. Capodanno to the Communion of Saints.
That's why Catholics must speak up to support the Staten Island priest's cause for canonization.
SIGN & SHARE: Fr. Capodanno showed heroic virtue in sacrificing his life to save souls
Fr. Capodanno (38) was killed by 27 machine gun bullets on 4 September 1967 in the Que Son Valley.
Known as the "Grunt Padre", his cause for canonization was opened in 2018 after the miraculous healing of a woman suffering multiple sclerosis.
With a strong devotion to Father Capodanno, the woman asked for his healing intercession and a subsequent MRI showed that the lesions in her brain had disappeared.
The woman attributed this miracule to the Naval Reserve lieutenant's intercession.
SIGN: We pray Fr. Capodanno will be declared a saint
Fr. Capodanno's cause might be the first considered under Pope Francis' "offering of life" category created in 2017 as a path to sainthood, with the traditional paths being martyrdom and dying as a "confessor".
The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints must hear of the faithful's support for Fr. Capodanno's cause.
Please SIGN & SHARE this petition today!
These mass purges of qualified fighting men and women threaten soldier and pilot shortages in the tens of thousands, which only adds to broader problems of military readiness, troop morale, and public confidence.
During a Pentagon press briefing in April on the Army's budget for Fiscal Year 2023, Under Secretary of the Army Gabe Camarillo announced the Army had "proactively made a decision to temporarily reduce our end strength from 485,000 soldiers to 476,000 in FY '22, and 473,000 in FY '23." Military Times reported at the time that this "could leave the service at its smallest size since 1940, when it had just over 269,000 troops."
While defenders of vaccine mandates are quick to stress that the military has long required soldiers to vaccinate against a range of diseases due to the harsh and exotic locales soldiers are sent to for extended periods of time and the close quarters they typically share with one another, previous vaccines were typically subjected to far more evaluation and development time before being put into widespread use than the COVID shots received during their accelerated clinical trials under former President Donald Trump's Operation Warp Speed initiative.
In March, it was found that 11,289 cases of pericarditis/myocarditis after COVID vaccination were reported to the U.S. government's federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) between January 1 and February 25 of this year, which was already 47% of the 24,177 reports for the same submitted in all of 2021. An April study out of Israel indicates that COVID infection alone cannot account for such cases, despite claims to the contrary.
COVID shot defenders claim that VAERS offers an exaggerated view of a vaccine's potential risks, as anyone can submit a report without vetting it, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention researchers have acknowledged "high verification rate of reports of myocarditis to VAERS after mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccination," leading to the conclusion that "under-reporting is more likely" than over-reporting.
Further, VAERS is not the only data source indicating cause for concern. Data from the Pentagon's Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED) has been similarly alarming, showing that 2021 saw drastic spikes in a variety of diagnoses for serious medical issues over the previous five-year average, including hypertension (2,181%), neurological disorders (1,048%), multiple sclerosis (680%), Guillain-Barre syndrome (551%), breast cancer, (487%), female infertility (472%), pulmonary embolism (468%), migraines (452%), ovarian dysfunction (437%), testicular cancer (369%), and tachycardia (302%).
U.S. service members facing medical coercion over the COVID-19 shots or denied effective treatment can apply for Medical Freedom Fund Grants with the medical freedom nonprofit Truth for Health Foundation by clicking here.
military readiness
military vaccine mandate