BRICS countries changing Traditional Power in World

A massive shift in economic, political and financial power is underway.  You will see the beginnings if you look at the following video report, on the heads of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) meeting in New Delhi this week.  They talked about UN reform, and an alternative to Western institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. 

The BRICS countries are reputedly experiencing an average of 7% growth each year whereas the economies of the `developed world` (US, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand) are in the toilet.  Today marked the first day in a series of massive changes.  So if you felt a cataclysmic shift in our world, from what you will read in the media, these will appear to be mostly national, economic, political and financial.

Note that the BRICS meetings were completely ignored by PBS in the US and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, never mind the corporately owned news outlets.  This was also the case with Occupy Wall Street which the mainstream media ignored for almost two weeks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vg9qvYwQHg

There were signs leading up to this.  Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF went cap-in-hand to talk with Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev asking if he could spare some cash to put in her fund.  She also announced, in effect, that the IMF will no longer engage in money laundering.  

Another sign was the outrage that has grown since 2008.  No one is in jail, or even in court, for bringing about the global economic meltdown.  People in government and Wall Street are too chummy for doing anything about that. So the US was the reckless relative most countries wanted to watch.

This series of BRICS announcements means is that it will be much more difficult for the US and Israel to cook up a war with Iran.  If the BRICS countries disagree with western news outlets that President Assad in Syria is as bad a guy as he`s been made out to be, the UN may change their recent resolution.  

The rise of the BRICS means that the dollar will no longer be the currency of choice for international deals.  We could see a new currency announced at the BRICS summit in South Africa in 2013.  Perhaps we`ll see the US military miss a few pay check deadlines for it`s employees... as many things seem possible now.  Stay tuned for this developing global story. 

But let`s pull back and discuss what you won`t read about anywhere else... what these newly emerging realities mean for neighbourhoods internationally, and personal internal changes.  

As we see more centralization of decision-making in the world (One world order, or world polarization, East-West, developed and developing nations) decisions and resulting plans will become ever more removed and less relevant to what needs to happen locally in our communities.  Ever increasing centralization initially leads to unsustainable results.  To maintain balance in the world, obviously there will be a spontaneous increase in the importance we give to the ‘hyper-local’, i.e. neighbourhoods. 

Perspectives of `East and West` and ‘good and bad situations’ are creating the necessary tension for society to move to functioning in higher ways.  People will increasingly move to creativity and higher values, such as compassion, initially either out of fear, or out of the desire for inclusion and unification.  (Remember the western developed countries will be the `have-not` countries, and inclusion will come to the fore-front of western people`s minds). 

In the last 25 years we`ve seen increased ecological ways of thinking which require the functioning of both halves of the brain.  But that`s just the beginning.

Believe me, people will start to be more aware of the organizing role of a non-localized, or quantum ‘shared Self’.  This way of thinking requires functioning of the brain`s frontal lobes.  To be exact, the front 2-pounds of an adult brain.  Recognition of a ‘shared Self’ and what we can think of as It`s actions will also probably develop though the functioning of the fore-brain.  We will soon recognize that the world is indeed one organism.  

Scientists and linguists at the university in St. Petersburg during the early 1990`s already found that some of what Western scientists refer to as ‘junk DNA’ actually is the means by which individuals link individual actions into the overall actions within the ‘shared Self’.

So big changes are here -

• Attention to individual needs rather than government policies and one-size-fits-all approaches,
• Brain functioning in more complex ways requiring education for the creative economy, 
• Coordination through seeing how a neighbourhood, and a person, fits into the larger whole,
• New coordinated ways to get things done locally and internationally over the Internet.
• Perhaps bake sales to raise funds for the military. (Only kidding).

Have you Organized as a Collaborative Village yet?

Today I attended the first in a new round of meetings about noise in our neighbourhood.  We live in a relatively quiet residential neighbourhood and found it alarming that an office space leasing business that encourages collaborations among companies with a 'social mission' would be so noisy.  Everything looked good when we heard that they were all about turning everyday challenges into opportunities to improve our communities and our planet.

However, business is business, and no doubt part of the plan was making money by renting out the main floor for parties.  Hey why not loud parties, as they can be more fun?  And what if these go on until 2 a.m.?  What about cars parked in the lane-way in-front of neighbour's garage doors?

Special occasion permits and liquor licenses are secured from the City.  And it's 'Party on!' with scant regard for people trying to get some shut eye.  It's all about that bottom line, improving communities, staying alive, and being socially innovative.   

At today's meeting we recognized this was no-longer about explaining our concerns to the new business in our midst.  This was going to be about ensuring they were denied permits.  We simply want to shut those noisy parties down.

It was not until schmoozing around the cheese platters after the meeting that I realized we could have been creative.   

Doh!  We could have been proactive!  

Why be constantly reactive, on the defensive or offensive for whenever a new crisis arises?  In addition to gearing up for another confrontation, we could also be looking to partner with this, and other businesses in the neighbourhood.

They need us on their side.  And in a transition to a creative economy, maybe we need them to be on our side too.  Maybe not the retirees in the group, but the kids, youth and self-employed people could benefit from help in becoming arts-based professionals.  (See previous blog for more on how economies evolve.)

  

The challenge for a group of neighbours to partner with businesses is that we need a creative and aspirational vision for the area.  (What could the neighbourhood be like with more beauty, enrichment and convenience at our doorsteps?  How do we attract more grace into our lives?)

Out of the vision comes a mission, or how to we make the vision real.  Tumbling out of the mission will come a series of major objectives, or the main aspects of how we are going to be pro-active in helping ourselves and others.

Businesses are clear on what they are working to achieve.  Ask the company chiefs what their objectives are and they will have an up-to-date list of reasons why all their people came together and get paid each month. 

So in preparing to partner, we address the challenges of coming up with a neighbourhood vision.  We would not be the first neighbourhood around here to do such a thing.  In fact you could say we have been lagging behind.  See http://glenmurray.onmpp.ca/pages.aspx?id=community_planning 

A new way to get things done

Either before or after our little rumble with the new business in the area, I will propose a Collaborative Village model of organizing.  This generates income and support for people willing to contribute to improving society.  In fact, I'm blogging right now, so why don't I suggest it here, and email a few of the neighbours?

A Collaborative Village secures suitable, under-utilized space for various aspects of a neighbourhood campus.  This is for education that prepares youth and entrepreneurs for the transition to a creative economy.  Studies will be within areas like creativity, community, compassion, and entrepreneurship.

And there's a big role for semi-retired elders to play.  They can help younger people start initiatives, becoming more practical and realistic.  And neighbourhood elders stand to learn a lot from today's youth.

A Collaborative Village looks at local TV and internet sites for production and support for our neighbourhood campus.  Let's face it.  The various levels of government are not going to be building large numbers of new universities and colleges.  So we can guarantee that people who need the necessary re-education won't get it unless the whole neighbouhood understands how it stands to benefit from working together.

A Collaborative Village sets up local collaborative hubs for self-employed people who can benefit from working together.  And we all need a break from all this commuting that chokes our lungs and stresses the ecology.

So who wants to coordinate a village?  

Self-employed people who are coaches, workshop facilitators, mediators, healing professionals, counselors and agents are always looking for new clients.  And nothing beats 'word-of-mouth' referrals! 

New and affordable opportunities for promoting services provide these kinds of entrepreneurs with real and immediate benefits.  I know I would like a neighbourhood rooting for me because of doing good work for the local community.  Why wouldn't others? 

Is coordinating a village possible?

It was not possible to have all this extra enrichment of our lives before the internet.  There were few options in terms of post-secondary education but to build a new campus.

People needed to publish expensive text books, because we had no way to learn and bring our knowledge together like we can today, using a wiki.  We had no opportunities to publish materials on-line as a neighbourhood - say on websites or blogs.

We didn't have on-line tools for business collaborations which allowed for our individual principles and values, until www.bettermeans.org was freely available to everyone.  And there were few options for local film and TV production and distribution, that is, before phones were manufactured with built-in cameras, and www.YouTube.com came along.

Now, with the Internet and on-line tools, coordination of a collaborative village has become very do-able.

What other models are there to consider?

The business investment area (BIA) model started on Bloor West Village in Toronto and is now in use in over 1,000 cities internationally.  However, people who run BIA's don't always live in the area, and often don't care what goes on in an area after their businesses close for the evening.

A BIA will react if something impacts their business, but they won't necessarily be proactive in terms of enriching the non-commercial areas of a neighbourhood, say residential streets, or other streets off the main street.  

You can also consider a resident's association model, where there is great socializing and occasional coming together around problems and opportunities. But nothing that we could consider as a response to the effects of globalization, and the subsequent economic transition we are going through.  It just seems to me that extreme change on the planet demands more than - the same ol', same ol'.

The residents` association in our area is wonderful, highly effective, and we have an innovative and fully engaged city councillor.  This may not be the case in your area.  Note that education and coordination for working a post-industrial economy is not part of their mission.

Also consider a ‘Friends of the Area’ model of volunteering, open to anyone.  You see this around parks or lane-ways that a city can no longer afford to maintain.  It can be fun in the short-term but it won't continue to bring people together unless there's some financial benefit.

As we move beyond some of the social conditioning on which we were raised, we see how we're all inherently creative.

There are many options that we can research, share and explore.  This is how people have adapted and moved forward throughout history.

Evolution within Economies

You may have noticed that all the manufacturing jobs have gone to China, Brazil, India, and other 'developing nations'.  As a result, for example, Ontario is no longer the industrial engine of Canada.  Ontario is apparently now a lowly province compared to oil-sands sucking Alberta.  However, Albertan people engage in bringing devastation of their province through oils sands exploitation, in effect reverting to large scale extraction industries as the main sources of revenue.  

Humanity came up with large scale extraction, soon after agriculture.  Extraction led to urban centres, (see the transition from a farming culture in Egypt to building cities and pyramids, about 4,500 years ago, for example).  Then look at England in the late 1800's when manufacturing factories were first introduced, when businesses made loaning of money safe, and capitalism possible.  Service businesses like banking and law made it safe for people to lend the large amounts of money necessary to build a factory.  

Its a long story.  But Ontario is now firmly post-extraction, and post-industrial.  And service industries like retail are in decline. So what do you imagine the 'developed world' is up to these days?

Some people are referring to 'what's next' as a transition into a creative economy reliant on arts-based professionals.  These are the people that provide entertainment, architecture, and run hotels, for example.  

You've read it here first, in earlier blogs, and you'll read it again:

All 'developed nations' have entered the beginning of a coordination-based economy which delivers savings on
time, money and resources through mutual fulfillment.  

Manufacturing required service businesses like advertising that conditioned us to consume more goods.  However mutual fulfillment requires that we release some of that conditioning and be in touch with 'what we stand for' or simply, our knowing our individual principles and values.

Governance and 'Democracy' Compared

Governance

The pace of change has continued to increase, especially since the arrival of the Internet.  And with all the changes in society we saw that chasing after ever greater short-term efficiencies was really not as important as we thought.  We need to be looking at estimating our chances of self-sustainability in terms of longer-term effectiveness.

Governments haven`t been able to produce self-sustainability. Our representatives are caught up in finances, and therefore ever greater efficiencies.

Therefore we are seeing increased attention paid to governance.  Governance is a broader and more inclusive term than government.  It requires decision-making and coordination in local communities and international society so that we become more responsive to changing conditions. 

Governance is crucially important.  We will look at why the role of governance shows up within an evolutionary progression in terms of decision-making within society. Governance is increasingly necessary so as to coordinate local and international outcomes for greater effectiveness and self-sustainability.  

The Internet

The Internet was initially the product of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) but has progressed to become something able to support local organizing that benefits local and global communities.  

International coordination amongst local communities could not have been attempted before the Internet.  The way that social networking, sharing, research, and learning from one another is possible on the Internet has made organizing across national borders more informal and natural.  And the more we learn to 'follow the money' in order to understand what is going on in the world, the more we see that economic depression and war all relate to finance.  http://www.thrivemovement.com/tips-how-follow-money 

Definitions of Governance

Governance can be defined as the evolving international relationships amongst local social, cultural, educational and political groups on the one hand, and governments and state agencies on the other. 

The rise of governance has led to four main steps within the evolution of societies:

1.      Militarization within, and military rule over, local and national populations is replaced with democratically-elected representatives

2.      Centralized decision-making amongst elected representatives and industrialists within formerly or newly industrialized nations is decentralized so that decision-making is shared with local representatives

3.      Decentralized decision-making on detention, land use and industrial emissions is shared with international social justice and environmental networks

4.      Decentralized decision-making that encourages the emergence of local community action in response to problems that require local expertise within networks that include researchers, experts, and activist members of civil society

The major tool which local communities rely on is our development as people able to determine when and how we are willing to act.  This requires education towards greater self-awareness and creative responsiveness to changing conditions.  We need to be able to decide what will be most effective based on the longer-term self-sustainability of a particular place.

Compare our ongoing development as people to what governments rely on, which is development of policies that dictate how budgets are spent.  In steps 3 and 4, we see a movement away from one-size-fits-all policy, to principles that change from situation to situation.  Principles are what a person will, or will not do at the time.  Principles are about taking action, not based on ideology, or ideological conditioning, but based on individual values in changing situations. 

Therefore governance moves away from decision-making based on finances, i.e. away from policy.

We have seen in earlier blog posts why coordination is the newest source of value generated in today`s economy.   If societies and economies are to continue developing we need to coordinate what we are willing to do based on our individual principles as members of local communities and as an international society.

Governance is extremely important now.  It is through the increased role of governance that we sustain further development of society and continued evolution on our planet.

Finally, I'd like to recommend another perspective:
http://occupyto.org/2012/03/indigenous-perspectives-on-the-occupy-movement/#more-964