Vol.1, Issue 1
Notes from the EcoPilgrim
by Marguerite Hampton
This is really a celebration for the Turtle Island Institute - kicking off the New Millenium with a brand new publication - Kokopelli Spirit. A publication which we hope will aid those who find themselves in transition during this tumultous time to "green" pastures. While the New Year was ushered in accompanied by financial markets at all time highs and shoppers plunged into malls and onto the Internet with consumerism as their banner, concerns for the common man and woman struggling to live in this increasingly unbalanced world emerged.
Marguerite Hampton
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While the technology of today permits the corporates to produce ever more and more goods at lower and lower prices and with decreasing need for human labor, the question arises as to how the economy will continue to propel itself forward with so many being disenfranchised from the labor force. As corporate mergers, layoffs, downsizing, and outsourcing in the name of efficiency is practiced and produces a good investment potential for investors, the average worker finds himself increasingly left out in the cold. For the first time in history, the labor force has now become delinked from the financial markets. That is, more income is generated by passive money being pumped into the stock markets thru investments than is made by workers investing their labor in the workplace. The question arises as to how long this can last. Sooner or later, won't the markets run out of steam as fewer and fewer have purchasing power with which to feed it?
Coupled with the sudden realization that globalization is an irreversible fact and that the remaining workers in the labor force of the wealthy industrialized nations must now compete against the labor force of Third World Countries, 45,000 workers from around the world descended upon the World Trade Organization meetings in December of 1999 to vent their frustration with demands to be heard by the envoys of the 135 member nations in whose hands their destiny lies. Somehow the disparity between the wages of those in Third World Countries and those of the powerful industrialized nations must be alleviated. At the present time, the trend seems to be more toward reducing the wages of those in the industrialized countries rather than raising the wages of those in Third World countries. There seems to be no solution here that would benefit everyone.
While labor stuggles to maintain its position in the world, our natural resources are as well strained by the ever increasing needs of the corporates for raw materials to be turned into products. Pressured by the unceasing demands of corporate investors for returns on investments, the corporations are forced to turn a deaf ear to the cries to cease and desist their agrievous ways from both laborers and environmentalists. All the while the consumer rushes to the marketplace demanding ever more and more goodies that for the most part have no real value in the sum total of things.
If all this were not enough to threaten the beginning of a New Millenium as one which had progressed from the last Millenium in terms of meeting human, social, and ecological needs, Mother Nature seems to have determined that "enough is enough, already". Tired of being battered, beaten, stripped, raped and pillaged almost beyond recognition of what she was a millenium earlier, this gracious matron has seemingly determined that revenge is hers and summoned up a global warming trend with which we must now deal.
As if these unprecedented challenges in the history mankind are not great enough, we are also presented with the challenge of how to cope with a population of almost six billion persons who are demanding their fair share of what this world has to offer. And while some would blame the problems of the world's rapidly decreasing resources on the births of so many in Third World Countries, the United States must take some responsibility for presently consuming 40% of the world's resources with only one-fifth of the world's population.
Somehow if we are to emerge from this morass of exploitation of both human and natural resoures we must learn to control and manage our economies while at the same time giving them a human face. It has also become obvious that governments have become part of the problem and cannot be looked to for solutions as those in power worldwide increasingly come under the influence of corporate lobbyists. Disallusioned with their leaders and their failing governments in the United States, only about 40% of those eligible to vote at the polls even bother to show up. Most feel that their vote no longer counts in a world where lobbying prevails.
Where people are showing up however, and the place in which they can begin to exert their power and make a difference worldwide, is the marketplace. Through making responsible choices in the marketplace, purchasing only necessities and going by the "less is more" philosophy we can regain control over "out of control corporations" and bring them into alignment with the needs of the common people of the earth. This can be a peaceful revolution of the people, by the people, and for the people.
In the months ahead, Kokopelli Spirit will be examining ways in which we can make ever more responsible choices in the marketplace. Choosing wisely the way we travel, the manner in which we build our homes and commercial structures, the manner in which we furnish them, along with the foods we eat, and the clothes we wear - choosing wisely the basic necessities of life and giving up the non-necessities - can go a long way toward resolving the unprecedented crises with which we are faced today.
May this next millenium be remembered as the one in which we, the human race, met and conquered our human and social needs while preserving our homeplace and quieting the wrath of Mother Nature.
May all be equal and all prosper in this New World Order.
May all be blessed through the power of love in this New Millenium.
Disclaimer:
"The opinions expressed by the authors are theirs and do not
necessarily reflect those of the publishers. Contrary opinions are
welcome and will be considered for publication if in compliance
with author guidelines for length, etc."