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Minister stephen - My Blog
Minister stephen - My Blog


Foundations for Solving Global Crisises
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

To truly get real about solving the climate crisis, or the related poverty and human rights crisis, or any other global issues common to humanity, requires having a basic set of foundational agreements about:

1) What the common root cause of these problems are; and
2) What constitutes a sustainable solution.

We believe it self-evident that the common cause is the Industrial Age economic model that creates money out of thin air, then requires the living people and the Earth pay the bill in labor or natures resources. When peoples labor pays the bill a debt crisis is eventually created with poverty the inevitable result; when nature pays the bill the environment is damaged. Only a few hundred years old, this economic model based on competiton and conflict has left our children a legacy of debt and a withering planetary environment.

"What an astounding thing it is to watch a civilization destroy its self because it is unable to re-examine the validity, under totally new circumstances, of an economic ideology." ~ Sir James Goldsmith



So What Is the Solution?

Information Age tools can relieve pressure on people and the environment.
Achieving this goal will require a common global community where even the poor can access digital wealth using a free peer to peer Information Age economic system where "value" is created from human elements of creativity (music, words, art) rather than natural resources.

A equal system where one can shoot an animal video instead of an animal, and provide wealth for their family earned by digital sales to a global audience. Prosperity Program in conjunction with Peace Portal Humanitarian Trust, and the FDU can meet this bold goal.

"If the Internet is going to become the engine of global commerce it's cracked up to be, it needs a currency it can call its own - a currency as nonproprietary and international as the Internet itself." ~ Wired

We must evolve to an Information Age socio-economic model for our future, and act responsibly to clean-up our mess if we wish to alleviate the problems caused by the the Industrial Age economy. This will not happen over-night, nor should it, our Plans and Projects are designed to ease the transition pains for humanity while relieving pressure on our environment using a Three Phase Plan.



Phase 1: Plan-It:
Identify causes and solutions, participants, and protocals

Phase 2: Plant-It
Implements solutions identified in phase one

Phase 3: Planet
Integrate solutions over a global network.

Implementing a global Information Age solution will take approximately one generation, it is happening already and will happen irrespective of our efforts; to direct this change in such a way as to also address poverty, freedom, and environment requires three things happen in coordinated synergy.

Peace Portal is therefore sponsoring Projects and Programs required to ensure that the coordinated energy required to achieve this goal can be accessed, added to, and achieved with minimum effort.

Help balance the environmental damage done and GrowTrees like Costa Rica -try Paulownia Tree

May 2, 2008 | 3:15 PM Comments  0 comments



Internet Governance & Sustainability
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

The Internet is considered by many to be the global infrastructure of the information society, the most critical piece of the economic, social and cultural foundation of our time. Internet governance can be used to gain a sustainable and freer future, with less poverty and a cleaner environment as long it is not stifled by regulators who are ill equipped to regulate a global community with needs unique to each local, socio-economic, and geographic User. Governance has been on the international agenda for a relatively short time, starting when ICANN was created in 1998.

As the Internet has matured various methods and trials for governing digital communities are now common place, most especially in virtual worlds like 2nd Life, and also in more conventional communities such as eBay or MySpace. With the coming of even greater experiments in Internet Governance are tried, such as the FDU ( Free Digital Universe) "Digitatorship", we expect this issue to become a high priority of International regulatory bodies. Competing regulatory entities from countries who are also competing for trade surpluses, are a big part of why we have a global environmental crisis on our hands in the first place.

Hear me I beg you people, the law forums in which corporations, governments, and all fictional bodies politic are contractually bound to operate is "Competitive." Debt money is created and it trickles down to the Earth paying the bill, the interest on the loan adds insult to injury by creating trickle down poverty - only now it's reaching the 1st world too. Look who you are asking now to solve to the problem, Corporations who have a fiduciary duty to serve their shareholders first (anything else would be illegal), countries their citizens, Trusts their beneficiaries, etc... If we want to really address the environment (reality, Earth, Substance) we will need to "GET REAL" - have living people (all of us) take responsibility by enough peers stepping up and creating a global association where cooperation gets everyone more than competition, a free space.

Additionally, we living people (souls) will need to provide the corporations a place they too can cooperate and still benefit - as long as they behave - like in a Church parking lot fundraisers, where corporate competitors become cooperative Vendors for that day in order to both access the people coming to the Church fundraiser - they can both profit and support the community in this type of instance. A law forum where competition is set aside for the good of all, yet still allows everyone to prosper, would be a excellent Governance system. One is even designed and close to being tested, it should get exciting soon, the Information Age is maturing.

It is my hope that the living people who are the real stakeholders will mature in use of this tool for humanity by participating here, on the WECANSOLVEIT platform, and through participation in open Internet communities working toward sustainable economic eco-systems. If peers (living people) don't speak up, by default it will once again be left to powers that be to provide regulation.

International dialogue tending toward greater regulation has been ongoing since 2003, when delegates to the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) concluded that Internet governance concerns went beyond web names and numbers. Decisions taken around this wider set of issues will have important implications for sustainable development. Examples of points of convergence between Internet governance and sustainable development include:

1. The dependence of developing countries and development organizations on the stability and security of the Internet. The case of Zimbabwe's country-wide interruption in service illustrates this point;

2. The role of the Internet itself in supporting better institutional governance (for example, in facilitating institutional accountability and transparency and citizen participation in governance activities. As the Louder Voices report points out, a significant portion of developing countries do not have the capacity to realize or take advantage of these opportunities); and

3. Internet-enabled global knowledge sharing and management (for example, in the areas of health; food, agriculture and biodiversity; education; and science and technology).

The WSIS Working Group on Internet Governance developed this working definition of Internet governance, which was adopted by the WSIS governments in the Tunis Agenda (2005):

...the development and application by governments, the private sector and civil society, in their respective roles, of shared principles, norms, rules, decision-making procedures, and programmes that shape the evolution and use of the Internet.

This definition is helpful in that it enumerates the stakeholders and some of the challenges facing Internet governance; however, it provides no direction as to what a system, or a combination of systems, of Internet governance would require in order to be sustainable.

One of IISD's strategic objectives is to advance sustainable development by contributing to institutional transformation, particularly through promoting the principles of accountability, participation and legitimacy.

The final meeting of the Word Summit on the Information Society in November of 2005 in Tunis saw the creation of the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), aimed at providing a "multi-stakeholder" space on a wide range of topics related to Internet governance. IISD's participation in the first meeting of the IGF focused on strengthening the role of young people in the process and on contributing to discussions around the links between the governance of the Internet and sustainable development.

Following the meeting, IISD helped organize and moderated one of the three thematic weeks of the electronic consultation among young people on Internet governance issues. The discussion archives can be accessed here.

Read about the differences between Physical Governance and Digital Governance.


May 2, 2008 | 3:13 PM Comments  0 comments



Why Poverty Exists
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Poverty is a seemingly complex issue; there are many various causes that create conditions of poverty such as lack of education, natural conditions of drought or flooding, and corruption. However complex, there is a single issue that more than any other condition that perpetuates a spiral of ever increasing poverty in the third world, that issue is "use of debt money."



debt3.jpg

Governments borrow money, and like any lender the one lending the money wants to be paid back, with interest. Seems fair enough. The problem is that when governments borrow it is the real people whom have to repay the loans, and make interest payments.

"The developing world now spends $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives in grants." ~ Global Development Finance, World Bank, 1999

Adding insult to injury, the people of a country often never receive any portion of the funds that their government borrowed.



"The poorer the country, the more likely it is that debt repayments are being extracted directly from people who neither contracted the loans nor received any of the money." ~ Debt - The facts, Issue 312 - May 1999, New Internationalist child2b.jpg



The citizens of countries wind up paying the bills because they have pledged themselves to back the public faith of their governments debt, they are "citizens" and as such are the only collateral governments have, so governments borrow and then necessarily extract resources from their citizens to repay the Creditors. povertyfam.jpg



In 1997 the foreign debts of 'developing' countries were more than two trillion US dollars which averages out to a debt of $400 for every man, woman and child in the developing world - where average income in the very poorest countries is less than a dollar a day. Clearly this is non-sustainable.



Most of the increase in debt during the 1990s was to pay interest on existing loans. It was not used for sustainable development or education, or to address the causes of poverty. In six of the eight years from 1990 to 1997, developing countries paid out more in debt service (interest plus repayments) than they received in new loans - a total transfer from the poor South to the rich North of $77 billion. childpain1.jpg



You would think the richer countries had enough, maybe at least enough to decrease the developing worlds interest payments so less people need starve.



"According to UNICEF, 30,000 children under the age of five die each day due to poverty. That is about 210,000 children each week, or just under 11 million children - under five years of age, each year." ~ State of the World's Children, 2005, UNICEF



In return for new loans to poor countries, the lenders insisted on 'structural adjustments' to increase their chances of being paid back. This meant cutting government spending on things like healthcare and education - the very services on which poor people, women and children in particular, rely upon to escape the cycle of poverty. Many of these countries have ended up spending more on servicing their debts than on the basic needs of their citizens. deth1.jpg



"The lives of 1.7 million children will be needlessly lost this year [2000] because world governments have failed to reduce poverty levels." ~ Missing the Target; The price of empty promises, Oxfam, June 2000



The debts of the poorest 'low-income' countries are owed to First World governments, or private corporations and 'multilateral' institutions like the IMF. In many cases the Third World governments never even borrowed the money in the first place, instead private debt was transformed into public debt through government guarantees and 'support' for private business. Its not unlike when your credit card debt gets sold to a Third Party Collections company, you didn't contract with the company collecting on you and now the bill has increased over what you owed do to interest, penalties, and processing fees.



It should seem obvious that continued use and borrowing of money which requires interest be paid on it only continues the cycle of poverty. But what other money is there to use?




It seems logical that a complimentary digital currency might provide a solution to this cycle, it would if it could meet the following honest monet criteria; digicash1.jpg




1. It is usable by the individual Globally, meaning usable in a single forum amongst any people irrespective of national, geographic, or other distinctions;



2. It is interest free;



3. It is earned as opposed to borrowed, so it is used as a "Credit" as opposed to a "debt" instrument;


4. Can be earned by activities people are already engaged in;


5. It can be earned starting with nothing;


6. IT IS BASED ON ASPECTS OF BEING HUMAN - NOT NATURAL RESOURCES; a Information Age economic model to compliment the Industrial Age economic model; and


7. It is exchangeable through peer exchange mechanisms both on-line and off with the current publicly issued money system and its various debt bssed urrencies;




~ May You Be Blessed With Good Health, Long Life, Prosperity, Wisdom, & Peace


May 2, 2008 | 3:10 PM Comments  0 comments



FDU Economic Model for the Information Age
Related to this project: Free Digital Universe

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

FDU ECONOMIC MODEL:

One purpose of the FDU design is to provide a comprehensive Information Age economic model that sustainably addresses extreme global poverty, over-use of natural resources, and unequal compensation in a globalized world. Our Game is designed to improve the human and planetary condition by supporting humanitarian partners with the capacity to resolve issues related to lack of basic resources in health care, education, jobs, fair wages, food, water, and shelter.

If we trace the causes of poverty, the above mentioned issues, and of environmental degradation on a planeary scale we will find they all have a common root-cause, the Industrial Age economic model. The FDU Game will test a Information Age economic model.

The current economic model creates wealth out of thin air and then requires that one of two forms of substance pay the bill, the first is to extract it from Earths natural resources thereby upsetting our natural planetary cycles; the second source of substance for paying the debt is the labor of living people.

While poverty has always been a issue, it was only with the advent of the Industrial Age and it’s use of paper money that extreme gaps in poverty developed along with the gap between the richest and the poorest.

An analysis of long-term trends since the approximate start of the Industrial Age indicates the distance between the richest and poorest countries has grown, causing extreme poverty to those who are on the loosing side of the equation.

· 3 to 1 in 1820
· 11 to 1 in 1913
· 35 to 1 in 1950
· 44 to 1 in 1973
· 72 to 1 in 1992

The result today is dire. A kindergarten class a second dies, that is 30,000 children a day under the age of five; Half the world — nearly three billion people — live on less than two dollars a day. This is a direct result of the Industrial Age economic model trying to keep up in our current day with monstrous debt load that has been created out of nowhere via the phenomenon of interest.

“The developing world now spends $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives in grants.” ~ Global Development Finance, World Bank

This continued cycle of poverty is based on the assumption of a competitive nature based economy. In return for new loans to poor countries, lenders in the 1980s and 1990s insisted on 'structural adjustment' to increase their chances of being paid back. This meant cutting government spending on things like healthcare and education - the very services on which poor people (and women and children in particular) rely. Many of these countries have ended up spending more on servicing their debts than on the basic needs of their citizens.


The Free Digital Universe and it’s component parts hope this Game will help individuals and companies from around the Globe to better respond to the dilemmas created by the Industrial Age. You may view the integrated Information Age Charity Plans plan at www.peacepoprtal.mobi, where the integrated non-profit organizations can be viewed and participated in.

“The technology of the Information Age makes it possible to create assets that are outside the reach of many forms of coercion. This new asymmetry between protection and extortion rests upon a fundamental truth of mathematics. It is easier to multiply than to divide.”

“Information technology will create equivalent opportunities for competitive choice in domiciling economic activities, but with important differences. One is that unlike the medieval frontier societies, cyberspace is likely to be in due course the richest of economic realms. It will therefore tend to be a growing rather than a receding frontier.”

With the tools of the Information Age we can achieve our goals. With the help of the independent peer partners whom have chosen to implement the Free Digital Universe concept, perhaps we can relieve pressure on individuals, communities, and governments.

“If you don’t like the way to the world is, you change it. You have an obligation to change it. You just do it one step at a time. ~ Marian Wright Edelman

“Today, peace means the ascent from simple coexistence to cooperation and common creativity among countries and nations.
~ Mikhail Gorbachev

Most succinctly, the purpose of the Free Digital Universe is to provide a viable starting point for experimenting with Information Age models of commerce which serve to free people by providing them with the tools to become locally self-sustainable.


May 1, 2008 | 12:05 PM Comments  0 comments



FREE DIGITAL UNIVERSE
Related to this project: Free Digital Universe

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

"The Universe does not burden you with a destiny. It provides you with potential.

How much of that potential you realize depends upon the choices that you make.

At each moment you are given an opportunity to choose.

Your path is determined choice by choice – your choices, not the Universe’s." ~ Gary Zukov



The Free Digital Universe (FDU) is being implemented as a virtual game with a multitude of earning and social options, players use Digital Soules as Avatars who collect Life Force Points. Avatars collect Life Force Points in a variety of ways, including:


1) Players share in the ad revenue of their virtual social networking Malls provided to every Digital Soule, thereby ensuring all Soules gain in Life Force Points automatically simply for playing.



2) Players may Publish Digital Products for sale and redistribution in any Game Players Malls (see http://shop.peaceportal.mobi) and collect the coin of the realm (Life Force Points: see www.epaycafe.com) for each sale originating from their Mall; and they may also offer these Digital Products to non-players (the Public at large) who can purchase using credit cards, e-currencies, and other public money.



3) Players may allow non-players to visit their virtual Malls and purchase Affiliate (such as Amazon) provided products via their virtual store and the Player collects “Life Force Points” each time a affiliate sale is realized.



4) Players may exchange other Gaming or e-currencies within our Games “Energy Trading Floor,” everything from 2nd Life Linden Dollars to PayPal or E-Gold may be exchanged for the Life Force Points earned in this Free Virtual Universe by the Digital Soule.



5) Players may barter directly as peers on our trading floor, the unique auction sites within the FDU allow Players to safely and securely (with built in escrow) exchange real goods and services.



6) Players may click on ads placed by other Players to earn Life Force Points, in this way everyone is guaranteed a means of increasing their Life Force Points. The reason another Player will pay you to look at their ad is because they want you to place their product prominently in your Mall space so they sell more using you as their sales partner; each time a sale is made all parties Digital Soule accounts are credited with more Life Force Points.



7) Players may import and create an infinite number of games and options in FDU.



8) Players will find access to free education, and many other non commercial (free) items of value, limited only by our imaginations.



The Universal Laws of the Free Digital Universe (FDU) are maintained through a "Digitatorship."



A Universal Oversoule called the Game Director, and 13 Dimensional Oversoules maintains the Digitatorship hierarchy.



The FDU Digitatorship is a governing style that is designed to be non-prejudicial, non-confrontational, and non-political.



Governance in the physical universe requires a fundamentally different approach to achieve its goal than do governance systems in virtual worlds. Protection of our physical bodies and assets requires establishing police, militaries, and legal restrictions on fundamental freedoms; the requirement to give up rights (and privileges) in exchange for protection is part of the physical experience. The physical world uses, apparently it requires: guns, courts, wars, physical force, and jails as its remedy to destructive physical and commercial behavior by Citizens.



A digital universe however has different requirements for meeting the goal of protecting its individual community members, being all-virtual there are no guns, no capacity for placing anyone under duress because any Netizen can simply not play. Additionally, in a digital universe the programming (natural law) of a virtual system has greater capacity than the physical to discourage bad behavior.



In a digital governance system, such as the FDU Digitatorship, it is possible to protect all transactions through the use of technology. For example, if someone is purchasing something at a digital auction in the FDU, the Life Force Points being exchanged will be placed in a automated escrow until both parties are satisfied. If a "Complaint" is made by a party before escrow is released by the delivery tracking spiders then escrow is frozen, this initiates a private resolution dispute process. Should the parties be unable to resolve the issue in the dispute resolution process the action is brought before a Tribunal.



We do not expect much need for the Tribunals; the FDU is a win-win game, costing nothing to play, with nothing at risk. Additionally, in a digital universe the constituents themselves can provide a system for remedy of grievances, and self-policing. When necessary a jury made up of FDU Avatars volunteering for such duty will be utilized as a Member Tribunal to dis-charge any open Complaints.




Through open accountability there is no reason the individual Member peers can not police themselves, choose to interact with others commercially whom have positive records, all the while having the confidence that their transaction is protected in escrow in case fraud is suspected.



Just like the physical universe has it’s set of natural laws, which treat everyone equally without need for outside interferences from man, such as gravity or karma; so can a digital universes programming act as a set of natural laws, treating all with indifference to economic, geographic, or any other definitional label of society.



Welcome to the Information Age, may we use its tools to evolve into a more peaceful, prosperous, and healthy world.



Visit our main site at www.freedigitaluniverse.com

May 1, 2008 | 11:59 AM Comments  0 comments

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