(A Personal Take on a Global Epidemic)

There is a silent and deadly epidemic sweeping across all nations at present. It has not been truly identified for what it is because it is generally concealed from the public’s eye. No one seems to speak about it, and yet, everyone is suffering from it. It is a merciless, heartless, and cruel disease which is eating up nations from the inside out and filtering its insidious poison into all facets of society today. It causes immense suffering and extreme hardship – recklessly hurting and endangering families and affecting the health and wellbeing of people from all walks of life. We are all jointly suffering from the same toxic virus, and still, we force ourselves to put on brave smiles and veneers that everything is fine and dandy. While all the while, in secret, we are in bondage to this grotesque disease which is tearing us up from the inside out and slowing sucking the lives out of us, and out of our children too.

What is this silent foe, you may wonder? It is DEBT – plain and simple. Other names for it include credit, finance, borrowing, loans, liabilities etc. They range in severity from mild cases, for example, a credit account from your local shop; to extreme cases, where everything you think you own from your house to the clothes on your back to the food in your refrigerator are all financed through credit. Debt, according to the Collins Dictionary, is defined as something owed such as money, goods or services or an obligation to pay or perform something. However, in modern times debt has become more of a ‘licence to pretend.’ What do I mean by this? For example, you believe you own your newly purchased home bought using debt, but in reality the legal owner is the lender as the house is mortgaged as collateral for payment of the loan. As the borrower you really retain only the right to redeem it when you have made your final payments on the property. Debt makes people slaves of money and it means that your future wealth (which itself can be uncertain) will continuously be transferred to your creditors at colossal interest, usually at around 30% but is often a much higher figure if you are continually refinancing your debts. As a result of continuous restructuring of your debts, you could well be paying for something at twice or three times its original cost price – Think about it, in relation to your home, this means that by the end of your mortgage you will not only have paid for your own home, but also bought a house or two for the bankers as well.

Debt, at its best, is merely an illusion of wealth. On a national level, debt creates an illusion of wealth here too. So why are people saying that the Irish economy is showing signs of recovery, if the country is simply up to its eyeballs in debt? This is a great question, and one I would really like answered myself by the Government, because debt only offers us a licence to pretend that everything’s alright. It is like putting sand in a bucket to stop up the hole in the end. It provides a temporary fix, but eventually the sand will fall through and we will be left with an empty bucket once more. With each new injection of debt, it gives a country a licence to pretend that the economy is doing well and showing signs of improvement, but the reality is completely otherwise. Why? Because with each new borrowing from the IMF/ECB/World Bankers, the loan still has to be paid back by the Government (with interest), based on a country’s future earning potential. This effectively puts people like you and me into debt bondage on all the loans of the Government, as our future earning potential is put up as collateral against the loans. Simply put: The work we haven’t yet done is going to pay for what we are buying now. Furthermore, if the Government has no plan to repay the National Debt within our generation, then the lack of a plan suggests that future generations are going to have to foot the bill for the excessive borrowings and reckless spending of today.

As a result of corrupt global banking practices, debt has blown out of all proportions and has now become one of the biggest global epidemics to threaten life as we know it today. I will not get into the hows and whys in this article of how the banking system has destabilised and undermined the entire global monetary system – there are far too many investigative journalists and brilliant researchers who have already done a fine job of this already (much better than I ever could) – I would, however, encourage you to do your own research into the history of the banking system and its licence to generate money using the documentary links below as a tip-of-the-iceberg starting point. In saying this, you must also be aware that there are some anarchist views too, which promote violent opposition to government, so you need to exercise your own research with balance and caution. I believe that the best approach is to simply start educating ourselves properly about the current flaws in the financial system; to recognise, identify and understand them well; and then, to use this information to seek out positive, creative and sustainable solutions to real-world financial piracy.

One great idea and potential solution is the B of Joy grassroots initiative which is taking place in the Netherlands at the minute. This is a group of professionals who have gotten together to create a sustainable and healthy financial alternative to the current banking system, stating that their initiative is essentially about transformation ‘from the old financial system towards a new subservient financial system’ (B of Joy Website). The BOJ recognises that banks who charge interest are not sustainable and that, from ethical and economical standpoints, interest, inflation and the unlimited creation of money are all forms of theft. They believe that money must return to its original purpose – as a means of exchange – and that this change will affect all aspects of society: ‘the economy, the tax system, democracy, culture, technology, institutions, energy market, education, health care, housing, transport, environment and human beings.’

I spoke to Gianluigi Cuccureddu, a Dutch-based marketing specialist – who is also a B of Joy team-member and ambassador – about what B of Joy is and what he believes it has to offer people like you and me. His response was this: “B of Joy is a cooperative pro-life, fair-trade bank in formation, a citizens’ initiative by professionals” and that people should get involved “because we, the citizens, must own the money supply and should decide in what topics we invest in order to achieve a healthy and just society.” Gianluigi adds that BOJ does not use interest because interest actually causes the shortages we see in the current financial crisis, and that BOJ will differ from other banks in several other respects too, most notably: it will operate under its own currency – the fixed-value URA currency (http://bit.ly/2cXSZQw) – once the threshold of 10k member have signed up; and also, as a member-owned bank, BOJ will be regulated through membership meetings, Internet voting and referenda among the part-owner to decide on the course and actions the cooperative bank will take going forward.

This is an encouraging example of how we really are some of the most innovative, intelligent and resourceful people on planet earth. We have created and invented things of unimaginable feats. We have come up with solutions to some of the biggest challenges this earth has ever faced from tackling water and drought in developing countries to developing cutting-edge, renewable energy projects worldwide. Now, one of our biggest challenges is caught up in money, because it is money that is stealing the show. At the end of the day, we are responsible for the future we create for our children and for the generations to come after that, and it is up to us to free them from the burden of the financial mistakes of the past. We have the potential to effect change today, and every decision we make today is one that shapes our tomorrow. We have to think outside the box. We owe it to our kids. They trust us, and ultimately, the most precious resource on this planet is not gold or silver or any rare metal or precious stone; our most precious resource is our children. What kind of world are they going to inherit from us? We are the ones who decide. Thank you for taking the time to read this article, and please feel free to leave any comments below.

  • S.J. Robinson is the author of the PROJECT CODE-X trilogy of high-concept thrillers. She is also passionate about finding real world solutions to issues that affect the future of her children. For more ‘outside the box’ articles, please sign up here @ www.projectcode-x.com For more information on the B of Joy – the financial system, the URA and to get signed up as part-owner or donator, please visit http://bofjoy.net/

 

Cited Sources:

Collins Dictionary, debt http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/debt

B of Joy Initiative http://bofjoy.net/

 

Further Interest:

Century of Enslavement: The History of the Federal Reserve by James Corbett https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IJeemTQ7Vk

Overdose: The Next Financial Crisis, written by Martin Borgs and Johan Norberg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ECi6WJpbzE

In Debt We Trust Documentary, written by Danny Schechter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cltc4Og6HKo

For Nations Living the Good Life, the Party’s Over, the IMF Says, by Howard Schneider http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/23/AR2010042305258.html?hpid%3Dtopnews&sub=ARS