Shouldn't have posted it here but then, again it is about relationships, I guess.

most of the writing -- Pro & con and confused, is under politics.  I added several articles about the Euro crisis in Greece  (the crisis du jour, IMO) just this afternoon.  Crisis is expanding to Italy.   Canada is largely unaffected so far.

It is a real crisis where it is happening,

Published on Thursday, November 10, 2011 by CommonDreams.org
Occupy Movement Demands Fresh Thinking -- For Our Grandchildren
by David Suzuki

It's a message that's starting to emerge from the Occupy movement. It's not just about the one per cent who rake in an ever-increasing proportion of society's wealth while 99 per cent bear the real costs. It's about corporate power and the systems that facilitate it. A few corporations have become bigger than most governments.

Occupiers know, because so many are young, that the inequities represented by the one per cent today are also intergenerational. Although not all corporations are bad, many of them, and the super-rich who run them, are increasing their wealth at the expense of generations to come -- exhausting resources, extinguishing species, and poisoning air, water, and soil. The costs of those problems will be most strongly felt by successive generations to come, yet economists discount them.

Why do the governments we elect to look after our well-being and future act as cheerleaders for the corporate sector? Because money talks.

Corporations may produce or do things that we need and that are good for society, but their real mandate is to make money, and the more they make and the faster they make it, the better. Corporations are said to be the economic engines of society. But as Joel Bakan explains in his book The Corporation, when profit is their primary goal, corporate leaders will fight to reduce their share of taxes, demand subsidies, oppose regulations, and fire hundreds of employees for the sake of the bottom line.

Globalization does not encourage the highest standards for workers, communities, or ecosystems. Instead, corporations often go for the lowest standards of medical care, wages, and environmental regulations because it's all about maximizing profit. The global economy means our garbage and toxic effluents are shared with the world, dumped into the air, water, and land.

When you buy running shoes, a cell phone, or a car, it's almost impossible to know whether slave or child labor was involved in its production. How can you be aware of the ecological impacts or the toxic materials that may be generated in the manufacturing process? These costs are hidden, yet each time we make a purchase, we become part of that system that exploits people and ecosystems.

To me, the Occupy movement is about putting decisions and democracy back into the hands of people. We need democracy for people, not corporations; we want greater equity; we demand social justice; and we want to recognize and protect our most fundamental needs -- clean air, clean water, clean soil, clean energy, biological diversity, and communities that support our children with love and care.

My generation and the boomers who followed have lived like reckless royalty and thoughtlessly partied like there's no tomorrow. We forgot the lessons taught to us by our parents and grandparents who came through the Great Depression: live within your means and save some for tomorrow; satisfy your needs and not your wants; help your neighbors; share and don't be greedy; money doesn't make you a better or more important person. Well, the party's over. It's time to clean up our mess and think about our children and grandchildren.
Copyright © 2011 David Suzuki

Who changed my avatar?

now that was funny. It was a train.

I think they have already done much, in that if one looked at the debate about the economy at the begining of August, it was all about governement debt. Now most of the talk on the net, and in newsopapers is about hoiw the economy is not serving people, and that those who made a mess of it have not paid any price, while the rest of us have, or are going to.

Thanks gecko & motheroffive & EO for your re-posting of info to help my understanding too, when I have not time or energy to go looking for this myself.  I do appreciate what you do here.   It is good I think to see the spirit stirring ...