 Tuesday, February 5, 2002
|
God on our side!
Timothy Wilken
As I watched the Superbowl on Sunday it appeared more of a political ralley than a sporting event. We had three living former Presidents of the United States quoting a dead former President accompanied by full orchestra and lots of stirring images. Then we heard the songs God Bless America and the National Anthem sung by today's leading vocalists.
The game itself was right in stride. The underdogs were called the Patriots and to help us tell them apart they had three American flags on their helmets.
The favored team whose image was the mighty Rams, had only one American flag on their helmets.
We should have seen it coming. Before the game all the experts and even the odds makers in Las Vegas said the only way the New England Patriots would win was if:
1) The Rams did not show up.
2) It snowed inside the Superdome.
3) Lighting struck preventing Kurt Warner from playing.
None of these events happened. But to everyone's surprise, the Patriots either played better than expected, or the Rams played worse and as the game entered the fourth quarter, the Patriots were ahead. Then suddenly, the Rams came to life. Kurt Warner started playing like Kurt Warner and the game was tied with less than two minutes on the clock.
No less a football expert then the legendary John Madden doing the commentary from the announcer's booth advised the Partiots to protect the ball and wait for overtime. But rookie Tom Brady apparently couldn't hear the announcers, and preceded to lead his team down the field in the style of a Joe Montana or John Elway to win the game.
So the underdogs called Patriots with three American flags on their helmets had proven that God is on our side. ;>)
As I have mentioned at Future Positive, a new economy is coming based on gifting. We humans can solve our problems all we have to do is change our minds. Here the Japanese have intiated a social experiment using love instead of profit.
JAPANESE TOWN ISSUES LOVE SMART CARDS
Kanagawa City's Project mixes LOVE and Money. This headline was published by the world's largest daily newspaper, the Yomiuri Shimbun on Jan. 22nd 2002 in Tokyo. The article reports: "The city of Yamato, Kanagawa Prefecture, will start experimental use of a local electronic currency in February, using plastic cards with integrated circuit (IC) chips. It will be the first electronic local currency system in Japan. According to city officials, the first batch of IC cards will be given to 73,000 residents who have volunteered to participate in the project. Beginning in April, all other residents who apply will be given cards. Cards will be issued with a value of 10,000 monetary units called LOVE that can be used like discount coupons at local stores.
Cardholders can increase their LOVE points through volunteer social welfare activities, garage sales or collection of recycled items, the officials said. Participants will apply for volunteer activities posted on the city government's Web site and, after completing the work, insert their cards into readers connected to the city government's computer. LOVE points equivalent to the assigned value of the work will be transferred from volunteer organizations to the cards via the host computer, the officials said. The readers will be set up at 1,100 locations all over the city. With LOVE points, cardholders can get discounts from local shops where the card readers are located or can purchase second hand items posted on the city government's Web site. "We would like to expand this service to include home shopping," Mayor Kimiyasu Tsuchiya said.
Sabine McNeill, organiser of the Forum for Stable Currency meetings at the House of Lords in London, comments that the Yamato Love and Money project demonstrates that the chronic and systemic shortage of national currencies can be complemented by virtual money that is local or regional. Public services can be financed in other ways than taxation, and money can be issued by an authority other than a commercial bank or the government - as interest-free credit rather than interest-bearing debt.
The Forum for Stable Currencies has been a place for debating the problems related to interest-bearing debt currencies since 1998. Solutions have been presented along the principles of LETS (Local Exchange Trade System) and commercial Barter companies.
Source: Sabine McNeill, organiser, Forum for Stable Currencies
Forwarded by Bill Ellis
