06 May 2009
Rainforest tax for living and breathing
Having seen Prince Charles video clip this morning and having worked in Brazil, for many years in the 70s and 80s, I saw first hand the start of the forest destruction and it is very difficult to stop people making use of their assets, when you have very low standards of living. The fact remains that it is big money and large American corporations, driven by consumer greed that cuts down forests and not the local population. Certainly the local inhabitants have for generations burnt and cut down forests, but nothing on the scale of the enormous land areas that have been and continue to be cleared with bulldozers.
Prince Charles’s message needs to go out to the consumers in the developed world, to the eaters of hamburgers, the consumers of soya beans, the furniture factories and the bio diesel guzzlers of our modern world. It would seem that as the rainforests are so crucial to producing oxygen and our lives are so dependent upon the reduction of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and it is only correct that everybody who lives and breathes pay for the privilege to the owners of the forests.
I am sure that a great number of people must think it is absolutely ridiculous to consider that we pay tax on breathing and living. But the fact remains that it is better to pay a tax and send it now to the people in the Amazon, Indonesia and other forests around the world, than lament the fact that they no longer exist in 15 years time when it will be too late. Drastic situations cause for drastic action is. And this sort of radical thinking is something that needs to be implemented as quickly as possible. It seems to me that it is Win-Win-Win-Win situation.. we all get the oxygen we need to survive, the atmosphere doesn't heat up with more carbon dioxide, the local indigenous people get an income and the forest stays.
A number of other things struck me in that it was excellent that this incredibly important subject was being aired on the Internet by Prince Charles and that although he was talking about a very important, down-to-earth subject, he was filmed in a library with flowers in the background. To have him filmed in a forest would have involved too many air miles but obviously this video was targeted towards decision makers who wear suits and ties, like ministers and directors of companies, rather than to a global audience.
The use of the rainforest frog was very much the star of the second video clip, and the courageous mixing operation that can be downloaded is a very interesting development for the Royal family. Hearing the sound bites from the Tibetan monk to Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig and the schoolchildren certainly gave it a global feel, as well as involving very different ages and cultures. It demonstrated that deforestation is a global problem, and we all have to assist in whatever way we can. As Prince Charles said, forests, trees and land are part of a country's assets and we must respect their importance as the lungs of the world and pay accordingly for their existence.
©William Barron
Creating Insight
May 6th 2009
05 May 2009
Bullying is illegal in schools and the workplace but OK in Downing Street...
It is quite amazing that there are rules and regulations and even laws about bullying in the workplace and in school playgrounds but it appears that it is perfectly OK that Gordon Brown, our erstwhile Prime Minister bullies everybody from the telephonist to his Ministers and anybody else that gets in his sights.
It appears that as it is “par for the course” and that is how it’s always been and so it is acceptable for everyone. Well maybe that is so, but I remember school and the bullying that went on there, which is now not OK due to the damage that it does to children. Well what about the same behaviour that occurs in offices and factories, which are now grounds for serious damages in tribunals and courts up and down the land.
Reading all about Brown’s behaviour and seeing him in action makes me wonder about how he behaves with his friends and family. The challenge with split personalities is that when the going gets tough one can never be absolutely certain what is going to happen next due to a process called Emotional Hijacking. Unfortunately the people close by get an earful and this doesn’t bode well for families. This then begs the question what happened in the past to make him like he is.. exceptionally bright, excelling at maths, good on the sports filed, magnetic to ladies and a furious work ethic.
Normally bullies have either been bullied themselves, are jealous of others who are brighter than them, or adopt a bullying behaviour as that is the only they can win arguments. Other ways to become a bully is to be very concerned about oneself and totally ego centric, believing that they are totally right and force their way through. Looking at his past this could easily be part of the challenge. Another aspect of bullies is that they have father’s who are extremely strict and don’t allow conversation or any discussion – the “seen and not heard” syndrome. These children never learn about give and take, or how to accept the ups with the downs of life. Even as adults these people are never really able to balance life and tend to be either at one end of the spectrum or another. Maybe a combination of all these behaviours has produced a split personality that walks the tightrope between brilliance and calamity, with one of the results being that nobody stands up to the bully when the going gets really tough, as the behaviour when stressed is even worse.
This is certainly not the best person to be at the helm during a storm, especially as bullies tend to recruit other bullies into their team, who by their very behaviour will never say boo to the bigger goose. What gets me is why nobody said anything about this before. The reporters and ministers must have known or were they all asleep at the bus stop or had they been bullied into submission. One of the rules of life is that if you don’t own up when you see a problem, it will invariably come back and bite you later on far more severely. Seems we are all in for one hell of a biting.
©William Barron
Creating Insight
May 5th 2009
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