I was asked recently to give a talk to a small but distinguished group on “how to survive the global financial and ecological crises”. Easy uh! Well you have to start somewhere and have a rough idea of where you’re headed. For me, the more difficult the situation gets, the simpler the solution becomes. Essentially, changes that once would have been rejected flat out as unworkable, implausible and idealistic, are suddenly deemed more acceptable.

We are all conditioned to think and live within a certain paradigm or system. For many of us (especially readers of this blog), it’s considered to be democratic, liberal capitalism. More realistically it’s a neo-liberal system where free markets dominate at the expense of any concept of the public good. Markets will solve any problem. Actually that’s a truism. It’s the outcome that is often of dubious merit.

When I look at the Occupy Movement, I see a protest against this system, a system where people are secondary to profit, and the public is considered to be a wasteful and unnecessary construct. As John Key noted of the Christchurch post-EQNZ insurance problem, eventually the markets will sort it out. Again they will but there may not be any insurance for anyone for a while. This mirrors the government’s approach to managing our prisons: simply contract it out to private operators, who will manage it more “efficiently”. The belief in the idea of the “public” is slowly being eaten away by this neo-liberal fantasy that for profit organisations will always achieve the best outcome.

It will be interesting to see how this protest develops but it feels like it has legs. The outrage is fair and justified: the corruption at the heart of the political-financial system; the gaping inequalities; the disenfranchisement and the feeling that the whole system is built on sand. Over time the picture will be clearer and the protests may coalesce around a series of concrete demand but the consultative and participatory process is a fascinating starting point. Participatory, as opposed to representative, democracy is messy, frustrating, turgid, slow, tedious and annoying but that’s the whole point. It is built on allowing all people a voice and on allowing a process to develop. It is a far cry from the many bills rammed through under “urgency” in the NZ Parliament, with little debate or scrutiny for even our partially elected representatives.

I wish them well in their endeavour. In the meantime, I have three simple proposals to offer, as a starting point:

1) Monetary Dialysis - No more public debt; new public money; raise limits on bank credit.

2) Trucost pricing - Start pricing ecosystem goods and services.

3) Participatory Universal Income - Basic Income for all those participating in society; rebalanced tax system; provision of key public goods.

I focused on the first 2 ideas in my presentation, the outline of which is below. By repricing our economic system, both in the cost of goods and services, as well as the creation and volume of money, we will immediately realign it towards a path of lower volume but higher quality consumption. We will reduce the burden of compound interest, this alleviating the constant pressure to produce and consume. The UPI will restore the public good in reflecting all contributions to society and laying the foundations for a more stable, harmonious and prosperous world. Far fetched? Not really, when you think about it for a bit. My turn is over for now. Who is next in the stack?

The New Zealand Film festival drew to a close on Sunday with a showing of the Annie Goldson documentary “Brother Number One” about the torture and murder of Kerry Hamill in Cambodia back in 1978. I’ve written about this case a couple of times in the past here and here and I also saw Rob Hamill, Kerry’s brother, give a talk about this at TEDxChCh last year. The film explores Rob’s journey, physically and emotionally, as a civil party in the trial of Duch, the CEO (Chief Execution Officer) of Tuol Sleng, the infamous S-21 torture and death camp in Phnom Penh.

The film has been put together very well, enabling those not familiar with the story, to really understand what happened and how the immediate family was affected. This year’s film festival had a strong theme of war and torture, with films like “Incendies” and “The First Grader” but I was still deeply moved by this film. It’s easy to become worn out by such stories, either feeling powerless, pessimistic or resigned. For me though they simply reinforce the need to keep pushing for democratic systems where human rights abuses are less likely to happen.

One interesting aspect of the film was the ability to interview survivors of Tuol Sleng, a handful of people who made it out alive and were able to bear witness to the atrocities that took place. Even more amazing were the interviews with those complicit such as the head of the local navy and an interrogator. Annie and Rob, especially, did a great job in keeping their emotions in check whilst doing their best to dig out as much information as they could without losing control. For Rob this really was a search for clues, for any piece of information, which would help him to piece together the last days of his brother. There was something almost masochistic about this undertaking. Why put yourself through that 30 years after the event? It was interesting that not all Rob’s siblings were entirely supportive of the idea (though on seeing the end result that changed). I can understand the reaction. The family had suffered enough so why drag it all up and make a film about it?

But that’s the whole point of bearing witness, of the calling to account, ultimately of justice. It’s also about acceptance, about releasing hidden and suppressed feelings of anger, hurt, betrayal, disgust, worthlessness and so on. Testifying in front of the court was the culmination of Rob’s journey and it was a fascinating moment, as he interrogated Duch directly. Duch was very courteous in answering his questions, bringing all his new found Christian beliefs to the fore. You almost had to pinch yourself to believe this was happening. Rob’s wife, Rachel, watched on the television outside the court, sensing his pain. I sensed that pain was still there when he spoke to the audience after the film.

Maybe it’s something that never leaves you. Even with all the Truth and Reconciliation Committees, The International Criminal Courts and other justice organisations, one is left with grief for the manner in which a loved one is killed. So within the carnage that was the Cambodian genocide, we are left with a simple human story of a brother that never came home and who found himself, by sheer misfortune, in the midst of a terrible process of human destruction. There is a no easy answer to be gleaned, no trite conclusion to be presented, just a revealing portrait of the suffering of one man and those around him.

Whilst the nature of justice is explored constantly, there are no solutions offered. How can there be? We’ve seen it all before, with the 20th Century littered with genocidal maniacs and the 21st Century is off to the same start. No, this is very much Rob’s personal story, a journey of discovery, understanding and exploration. One can only hope that producing this great film (there will be lots more footage on the website) will help him to release some of that pain and suffering. The film is an important testimony and it stands upright in that endeavour. In the end though life goes on and I’m left with the image of Kerry, not in S21, but sitting on the front of the Foxy Lady, grinning away at the joy of life. I’m sure that’s how he’d like to be remembered.

30 years on from the ’79 Revolution comes an awakening in Iran. And it bears similarities to Tiananmen, some 20 years ago, in the wave of uprising, despair, hope…a faint whiff of momentary freedom to express, dissent and simply let out some long building frustration.

As with all decent revolutions students are to the forefront and are certainly bearing the brunt of reprisals. And those reprisals will come thick and fast, hard and long, brutal and deadly. That’s just the way it is.

The Iranian authorities are somewhat stunned looking like they have been slapped by a wet fish.

“Where is my vote” people ask. Down the back of the sofa in Ahmadinejad’s office probably but the reality is that we don’t know that answer. But certainly the polling in advance of the election suggests the actual result might be rather different to the official one.

This is a big story and like Tiananmen it has captured the interest and hearts of many around the world. The connected generation has been pounding keyboards collating and disseminating information through social media with Twitter, especially, providing an outlet for up to the minute street reports.

Journalism schools will be setting 140 word max reports as part of their testing soon.

@persiankiwi has been a star with 24,000 hasitly assembled followers. Streaming news just took on new meaning. Instead of having the same story respooled and playing non-stop for 24 hours, we are getting a blow by blow account of what’s happening on the ground. It will be interesting to see how traditional media outlets can respond to this.

Given that most of them have been expelled they may not be much help. It suggests that any concerned citizen in any given country on any given day can provide a source of news. You just need a phone and away you go.

Imagine if we’d had mobile phones and Twitter in Tiananmen Sqaure. I wonder what difference it would have made to how China handled the situation.

What interests me most about this is that its an internal action. No regime change here…no hordes of US soldiers and targeted bombs..no neo-con fantasy of parachuted democracy. It’s the Iranian people trying to have their say. That is such a difference to its poor neighbours to the east and west who are mired in US inspired conflict.

In a way the outcome in Iran right now isn’t that important. It could end up really ugly or not. It’s hard to tell but the wheels have been set in motion. The world is watching and supportive of the process of peaceful demonstration.

There may be punishment, deaths, torture but realistically the authorities have limits in that area given the widespread dissent.

As Gandhi once said of British authorities trying to crack down on peaceful protest:

“But how many can be given such punishment? Try and calculate how much time it will take of Britishers to hang 300 million of persons”

I always remember this day and this event. Mainly because it screwed up my plans to cross China and get the Trans Siberian railway home after 20 months backpacking. As it was my girfriend and I were in Sust the last village before the Khunjerab Pass that links Pakistan with China and is the highest order crossing the world. It was a glorious spot with the towering Karakorams in the distance. Anyway the plan was set until we met this English bloke walking down the road to us. He’d just crossed over the border which had been shut and told us what had happened.

Remember this was BG (before google!) and before email even. News came via GPO Poste Restante and the travellers grapevine. So that was the end of that idea. It’s actually the closest I’ve ever been to China which is still on my list on places to visit.

But a lot has changed since that fateful day in Tiananmen Square and yet much has remained the same. The Chinese authorities began their media clampdown many months ago by suspending YouTube and more recently by blocking Twitter (what a compliment!) and Bing (Crosby??). As well as the usual quiet word in the ear of any one thinking about protesting or even acknowledging the anniversary.

So fear still rules. But fear of what exactly? Many Chinese are pretty happy with the way their economy has grown and how the modern world has been welcomed in. Sure not everyone has benefitted but there is a certain pride within the nation that much has been accomplished in recent times. Times like this are a real test for an authoritarian society. Dissent cannot be tolerated at any level.

But truth is a slippery ball and when one looks across to Hong Kong, where over 100,00 people gathered to mark the occasion, one can see that the attempt to censor and punish any kind of inquiry or examination is really a waste of time. People know.

China is a unique country with a long history and strong culture. Change comes slowly but hopefully those in charge will come to see the futility of repressing protest completely and censoring mass media. One thing though is for sure:

Tank Man is an enduring image of the 20th Century and no amount of propaganda or control can ever change that.

So the Tamil Tigers are no more and yet another ethnic conflict comes to a miserable end. How many killed for this? Has it made any difference? It may take some time for that question to be answered. Like many ethnic conflicts, this one seems to have gone on for a long time making one wonder what exactly it was all about.

My parents actually lived in Sri Lanka for a short time just before the civil war broke out. I spent the Xmas holidays on 1980/1 visiting them and enjoying the gorgeous beaches of the south west and the green hinterland. When I heard that civil war had broken out it didn’t really resonate with me. As a 14 year old, the Sinhalese and Tamils I had met just seemed like people. Also growing up with the conflict in Northern Ireland never far from the news, it seemed par for the course.

People, even of the same colour and country, could still engage in war. Both sides of my family have been on the wrong end of the ethnic vacuum cleaner so maybe I was just inured to it.But these days I am very tuned into any mention of ethincity and references to improving the hygiene of ones home country.

Whilst pondering the end of the latest carnage I was floored by the story of a Catholic man who was beaten to death by a group of Rangers football supporters in a small town in Northern Ireland. It was after Rangers had triumphed by winning the Scottish soccer leage competiton that a bunch of Rangers fans, Protestants, decided to pay a visit to the Catholic part of town and basically murder someone. Which they did.

So it continues. It’s a bit 20th century though.

Nowhere is immune from this.

What about that gorgeous Kingdom of Happiness, Bhutan. Apparently a wonderful place to visit and a very progressive society. In fact about 5 years ago I included Bhutan in a paper on E-government. It was quite advanced for a small mountainous country. No mention in the Wikipedia entry of ethnic cleansing.

Yet in the last 15 Years nearly 15-20% of the population has been cleansed and evicted from the country. What the..???

They certainly kept that quiet. 120,000 Bhutanese have been transformed into refugees living in 7 camps in Nepal. Some have found their way here to Christchurch to start a new life.

It feels like an ongoing epidemic……it’s hard to know when it will stop. Our identity is so important to us, yet at the same time it allows the tyranny of the majority an easy way to express any kind of anger or frustration. As Amartya Sen writes in “Identity and Violence“,

“..a major source of potential conflict in the contemporary world is the presumption that people can be uniquely categorized based on religion or culture”.

Indeed but it’s our willingness to succumb to group behaviour and peer pressure that allows atrocities like ethnic cleansing and genocide to happy. How can we move away from the “clash of civilizations” and to an appreciation of the person?

Actually I don’t know if we can. It seems so ingrained in our nature. Of course we can all educate our children and imbue them with values that include compassion, kindness and care.

I wonder how technology will help? I have a feeling that will play a bigger part than we realise. Maybe when all the teenagers around the world are connected through the semantic web……who knows?

Last night I was fortunate to see the play “My Name is Rachel Corrie” playing for the first time in New Zealand at the Forge, the no 2 theatre at the Court. It’s a 90 minute monologue describing her journey to the Gaza strip to volunteer as a peace activist (surely an oxymoron!!!!).

Go and see it if you can.

6 years ago she was murdered by the Israeli Defence Force, run over by a bulldozer attempting to destroy yet another ordinary civilian home. A mere speck in the devastation that is Palestine. But before everyone gets too excited, this post is not about Palestine but about the difference that individuals can make. That she continues to inspire people to act is in itself telling. That she gave her life for it is tragic but as she would probably understand, innocent lives are lost every day for little or no reason.

No Tiananmen Square mythology for her. The bulldozer did not stop for her. Perhaps because it wasn’t on film the Israeli driver didn’t feel any compunction to stop. One can only imagine what happens when no one is around. But this is the point. When we survey the world we can be overwhelmed by the incessant brutality and barbarism meted out daily by tyrants the world over. Yet still individuals can make a huge difference by directing us to the most minor of events which for us assume mythic proportions…perhaps biblical….David vs Goliath ring any bells.

Our sympathy is often with the individual, the person alone. It is the power of one that can move us, inspire us, energise us to say no. It’s why leaders such as Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King caused so many problems for their persecutors. One person can be harder to defeat than an army. It’s why Aung San Suu Kyi is always in our thoughts, always visible to the international community and always a thorn in the side of the tyrants.

So yes one person can make a difference. You can make a difference, no matter who you are or where you come from.

You can think about it or you can act, like Rachel did or you can write a letter.

It always counts no matter what the action.