Let's not confuse the message with the medium. Money is a medium of exchange-- so what is the message it brings? Just as there is a wide variety of content available in all our media today, there are a vast range of business services available. And I am glad to say that the tide seems to have turned, people around the world are starting to realise that being ethical is good for business. And more than that, it is essential. The key ingredient to one's prosperity it seems is having the health and well-being of our fellow planetary citizens-- and the planet-- foremost in our hearts and awareness.
Perhaps it is time for a bit of back-story. What is this blog about and why does it exist? Here's why. When faced with a situation where I wanted to offer something of help to people, whether it may have been a reiki circle or a community garden, I became aware of what was stopping people from getting involved or committing their time to what I considered to be clearly beneficial to them and valuable to the wider community. It was their need (both perceived and actual) for ensuring their own survival.. There was inevitably work, and that was because there was also food to buy and either a mortgage or rent to pay. However, it wasn't until a friend introduced me to the Ringing Cedars of Russia series (translated to English) that I finally gathered the scope of the issues facing us all.
Further to this, and directly relevant to this blog, the idea independently occurred (no one had to tell me, and I didn't have to read it) that each of us is indigenous to this planet, our earth. It is just that we don't feel it belongs to us because of the process (that somehow we allowed to take place) of commodification (being turned into a commodity) of the very ground we stand upon. Certainly we need to have some allotment of space for our very day-to-day existence, just as we need a certain amount of earth's atmosphere and fresh water just to live and breathe here. The last two are still free (except for tap water provided by local authorities), but to stand upon the earth and to shelter yourself from the elements (in your house) you generally have to pay. But why?
Indigenous people (including us, although most have forgotten this fact) have a relationship to the earth that is mutual and supportive. They (we) might say that they do not care for the land, but they (we) care for the things that live upon the land-- animals, plant, people-- and it is the land that cares for all of us (and them) in return. This being the case, the arrangement must be natural and independent of any financial games, wheelings and dealings or other contrivances of our imagination, and pre-dates and supersedes all of the above in importance and impact upon our lives. But you would not think so today.
I firmly believe that every one is entitled to the amount of land necessary to feed, clothe and house themselves and their (our) dependants. Not just for today, but forever-- in perpetuity. So-called indigenality (aboriginality, or indigenous status) is something of a red herring in my view, and to add another cliche, aborigines are the canaries in the coal mine. Western-type people are not suffering the same way in our cultural milieu because we are protected by artificial constructs that do not resonate with the world view of our aboriginal brethren. Imagine a strain of individuals raised on chemicals, processed food and hardy under these conditions. And another that requires fresh food and clean air and to touch the earth on a daily basis. Clearly our civilization favours the first, but that does not make them (us) any more worthy of survival, just freaks of nature really, mutants if you like.
Dispossession is something that bonds people in traditional societies with those in modern ones. European people (known as pagans) were treated much the same as the first inhabitants of Asia, North and South America, Africa and Australia (plus the Pacific) were-- and sadly are being treated today. And the pagans were the ancestors of so-called westerners today. It is not surprising that they (we) chose to visit the same treatment upon others that they (we) received. This does not make it right.
Today is our opportunity to start anew. Violent means will never achieve peaceful ends. Therefore let us seek out and employ peaceful measures to all the ills and problems facing humanity. It requires us to give a little. Economic abundance has its place, but at the heart of the matter having a roof over one's head is not a business proposition, it is much deeper and more significant than that. It is no game! But to play the games of economics we need to have something real at our base (when you play a board game you know you are playing, but you as a person are much more than a player, and you also know that). Let us level the so-called playing field. We are dealing with generations of unfair advantage and disadvantage (due to multiple episodes of dispossession on earth, aka "land grabs" and colonisation, enforced christianisation, etc.). So more is needed than telling one another to pull our socks up, "get a job" or to work for the dole. We need to make sure each of us has our basic land needs met. And the rest is fun and games.
What's in a cliche? Quite a lot apparently. Let's unpack this one- aboriginal status is a red herring. What I mean here is that too much has been made of differences among people. We have become experts at finding differences. When it comes to the need for land and space we are fundamentally the same. The so-called gap between aboriginal health, education and employment statistics and whatever you would like to describe others in society as, will vanish subsequent to every one being treated equally as owner and occupant of their own bit of the planet.
ReplyDeleteIt may be difficult for those boiled frogs (cliche!) who have grown so accustomed to the comforts of western civilisation to see those defined as aboriginal to be worthy of health, education and welfare-- when they themselves have become anaesthetised to the pain of their own disposession. Therefore, not having land (due to paying rent and mortgages) the idea of providing land rights for some one else is hard to swallow. That's why all must be treated equally regardless of origin or whose heirs they might be-- first Australians' or colonists'.
Canary in the coal mine refers to the boiled frog syndrome, above. Western people are protected by western civilisation, until it actually kills us (them) that is. Just because we don't object to unwholesomeness in our environment doesn't mean that it is not harmful. Some are more sensitive than others, and it must be hard for the boiling frogs to see some random frogs jumping out of the pot. The water is so nice..