[p2p-research] Fwd: April Newsletter

Mon Apr 26 07:01:37 CEST 2010

Dear Thomas,

thanks again for your always interesting newsletter, I'm picking up 2 themes
I'd love to see more on:

* The third event was the change Exchange conference in Calistoga that was
organized by Chris Lindstrom and the RSF Foundation.

ANY REPORTING ON THIS ONE?

* I’m encouraged to note increasing recognition of the empowerment potential
inherent in the mutual credit clearing process. It is significant that two
major organizations, Green America (formerly Co-op America) and BALLE (the
Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) have embraced mutual credit
clearing and will soon be offering that service to their members.

I WOULD BE VERY INTERESTED IN A REPORT ON THESE ADVANCES!

Thanks thomas, for considering assistance to these two requests, your
newsletter is below for the p2p audience,

Michel

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Thomas Greco <thg at mindspring.com>
Date: Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 4:04 AM
Subject: April Newsletter
To: Thomas Greco -- thg <thg at mindspring.com>

 *April Newsletter*

* *

*Back in the U.S. of A*

After spending 3 ½ months in Thailand and Malaysia, I landed back in San
Francisco on the ninth of March. Much as I like the Asian tropics for their
interesting diversity of cultures, great food, and low cost of living, I
felt a combination of things that were at once pushing me out and pulling me
back. On the push side, I can mention a few annoyances like the heat and
humidity, and the noise. Much of the noise is generated by motorbikes, which
are everywhere (I get the sense that if you left your front door open,
they’d drive right through your living room). On the pull side, I must also
admit that a certain amount of travel weariness had set in, and I was
beginning to entertain thoughts of a more settled life in a sustainable
community.

*Precious*

On the flight back from Asia, one of the entertainment selections was the
film, *Precious*. Having watched the Academy Awards ceremonies on television
a few nights before, I was curious to see what there was in this film that
might have made it worthy of consideration, and of the performance that was
deemed to be the winner for best supporting actress.

I found the film hard to watch at first, but as the story developed, I found
myself totally enthralled by it. *Precious* is a heart-wrenching and stark
portrayal of life in-the-raw, the kind of film one does not enjoy so much as
marvel at, a glimpse into a world of exclusion, poverty, abuse, and
dependence that exists right here is the midst of our own cities. It’s also
a story of transcendence and heroic overcoming against incredible odds.

Just three weeks later, while hanging out at Harbin Hot Springs, I came
across the book (originally called *Push**)* which the movie was based on.
It was just sitting there on a table in the library. How could I NOT pick it
up? The book, even more gritty and wrenching than the film, is a novel based
on the author’s experiences as a literacy teacher in New York City. You can
read about it and a hear a 5 minute interview with the author by NPR’s
Michelle Norris at *
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120176695*.

*The Most Dangerous Man in America*

During my month-long stay in the Bay area, I had the privilege to meet
Daniel Ellsberg and to be amongst the crowd of several dozen people who
gathered at his home to watch the new film, *The Most Dangerous Man in
America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers*. Winner of numerous
festival awards, and nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best
Feature Documentary, the film distills into 90 minutes, the story of
government deception and malfeasance and one man's courageous decision to
tell the people the truth.

I'm old enough to remember the events as they unfolded and were reported in
the news media, but being highly controversial and scattered as they were
over a long time period, their import and meaning did not then penetrate
very deeply beyond the veil of my own indoctrination. Now, more than 40
years later, with the pertinent facts gathered together and the inclusion of
newly-available audio records of then President Richard Nixon's maniacal
ravings about nuking the Vietnamese into oblivion, we have a compelling
picture of the abuse of power and a failed policy that extended over five
presidencies from Truman to Nixon.

Since 9/11, Americans have seen an ever greater concentration of power at
the top levels of government, finance and industry, along with increasing
government secrecy and violation of civil liberties. The USA Patriot Act
effectively shreds the Bill of Rights.

This film is the kind of powerful medicine needed to rouse the body politic
to face the political realities of our time and, hopefully, reinvigorate our
struggle to "escape the “matrix." It is a film that every American should
see, especially those who are too young to remember America’s war against
Viet Nam. You can see the trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXlmQeSpqI4&hl=en_US&fs=1&.

*California Teaming *

A main reason for my lengthy stay in the Bay area was to participate in a
series of events that occurred between April 9 and 13. The first of these
was the California Coop Conference in Santa Rosa which was organized
by the California
Center for Cooperative Development <http://www.cccd.coop/>. I gave a
presentation as part of a panel that included Derek Huntington and Chris
Lindstrom. That session was titled, *Local Currencies: Reclaiming Our
Economic Power*.

The keynote speaker at that event was Jim Anderson of the *Ohio Employee
Ownership Center <http://www.oeockent.org/> *who gave a very inspiring
presentation about a community development program in Cleveland, Ohio which
has resulted in the formation of the Evergreen Cooperatives. Here's the link
to a short video about it: http://blip.tv/file/2749165. This could become a
useful model for other communities to emulate. The following day, Derek and
I were joined by Krista Vardabash and Chris Lindstrom on a panel session at
the San Francisco Green Festival. The third event was the *change
Exchange*conference in Calistoga that was organized by Chris Lindstrom
and the RSF
Foundation.

I’m encouraged to note increasing recognition of the empowerment potential
inherent in the mutual credit clearing process. It is significant that two
major organizations, Green America (formerly Co-op America) and BALLE (the
Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) have embraced mutual credit
clearing and will soon be offering that service to their members.

Coming up, I will be traveling east in a couple weeks to participate in some
further events, workshops, and consultations. I’ll be presenting as part of
a panel at the BALLE
Conference<http://www.livingeconomies.org/conference/2010-conference>(Business
Alliance for Local Living Economies) in Charleston, South Carolina
on May 22nd (Saturday at 2:30 pm). Our session is titled, *Foundations for
Credit and Finance in a Local Living Economy. *Panelists are* *Derek
Huntington, *Sonoma County GoLocal Cooperative*; Tom Greco, author, *The End
of Money and the Future of
Civilization<http://beyondmoney.net/the-end-of-money-and-the-future-of-civilization/>
*; and Jenny Kassan, *Katovich Law Group*.

*Springtime in the Desert*

I arrived back in Tucson in mid-April, taking two days to drive from
California. Even California’s Mojave Desert offered a show of spring blooms,
but it’s nothing compared to the beauty and variety to be found in the
Sonora Desert of Arizona. The variety of wildflowers, bushes, and trees, the
fragrances, the mountains, and open vistas, are some of the things that make
me love this place.

After an absence of several years, the gardening impulse has once again
begun to stir. I could not resist adding a potted sweet basil plant to my
shopping cart when I went for groceries last week. Root-bound in its tiny
pot, it cried out to be transplanted into a larger one.

Alas, four of the five stems have died ...but one survives.

Let us hope that the human race will be as fortunate.

Happy springtime, wherever you may be,

Thomas

Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
PO Box 42663, Tucson, AZ 85733, USA
Website: http://reinventingmoney.com
Blog-Beyond Money: http://beyondmoney.net
Blog-Tom's News and Views: http://tomazgreco.wordpress.com
Photo Gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/tomazhg
Skype/Twitter: tomazgreco
My latest book, *The End of Money and the Future of Civilization*, is now
available. You can order it from ChelseaGreen.com, Amazon.com, or your local
bookstore.

-- 
Work: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhurakij_Pundit_University - Think thank:
http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI

P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net

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