Parenting and a Living Income Guaranteed

How does the lack of parental economic support affect our societies? How would Parenting change in a society where our basic needs are guaranteed as a Human Right? What effects will securing the livelihood of mothers and fathers bring to our society at large? What needs to change in society and economics to make parenting a successful and satisfying part of our lives and those of our children?

Join us in our discussion with Equal Life Foundation’s very own Leila Zamora Moreno & Gian Robberts, sharing their perspectives and experiences thus far in relation to parenting and how we can change the ways it is lived to build a world that is best for all.
You are welcome to place comments and questions for Leila & Gian in the comment section of this video.

Hosted by: Marlen Vargas Del Razo

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Day 247: Only in a Broken System does Misery equal Profit

Growing up and living in a First World Country where your Basic Human Rights are actually ‘met’ (albeit through considerable compromises) – you are made sure to be reminded of the many places and many people who are not in the same fortunate position as you’re in. “Empty your plate, don’t you know there’s starving children in Africa who don’t have anything to eat?”, “You should be happy going to school, in country XYZ they don’t get even get to go to school because there aren’t any”, “Stop whining, in country SomethingSomething you’d be living on the street by now”.

The message that gets ingrained is “Don’t complain, you should be happy – out there it is HELL”. So not only is one molded into an obedient citizen, made sure to ‘not bite the hand that feeds it’, we also get imprinted with immense guilt for having the niceties we have – knowing fully that if we had been born somewhere else, things would look a whole lot different.

So, what do we law-abiding-guilt-bearing-citizens do? Once in a while, as we get some ‘time-off’ from being a wage-slave – we want to go and do some ‘good’ in the world. We sign up to take care of the poor people, the less fortunate, the parentless, the hopeless, the marginalized and abused ones ‘out there’. We grab together our hard-worked savings and pay some travelling company to go work somewhere for free.

We are getting our holiday, we’re helping those poor people – it’s a Win-Win situation, right?
Is this ‘voluntourism’ phenomenon an expression of our altruism and good hearts? Or is it just another way devised by a crooked system to make money out of whatever will tickle our fancy?

In fact, 'voluntourism', as it's been dubbed, is the fastest growing travel sector, worth an estimated £1.3 billion globally.

Let us have a look at how the market responds to our demand for Guilt-Relief and Exotic Holidays:

'I thought, even if I can make a jot of difference, it's got to be worth it. So I started looking on the internet. Eventually, I came across an orphanage called the Dream House on the borders of Thailand and Burma, which rescued children at risk of being trafficked. There were videos on the website and it all looked amazing.'

A Thai charity, Starfish, was offering two-week voluntary placements at the orphanage for £400, with basic accommodation included.
Caroline paid in advance, and in January this year she travelled to Thailand. On arrival, she met other volunteers, many of them teenagers on their gap years, all signed up to help at the orphanage.
But within days of starting the placement, Caroline sensed that something was seriously wrong. 'I was pretty shocked at the conditions,' she says. 'The children slept on the floor - although there wasn't even a floor, just carpet underlay - with no beds or blankets. The youngest was only two years old.
'At dinner, they had one chicken between 29 children and a few vegetables. All the volunteers were coming in and giving £200 a week. So where was all the money going?'

Ah… the ways of Supply and Demand: you wish to relieve your guilt – and so we shall provide you with the opportunity to do so. The ways of the free market are cold; the market does not look at your intentions, the market does not care about the repercussions of serving demands – all it does is reek money and provide the quickest and best way to cash it in.

We end up with fake orphanage centers with children trained to act according to our idea of what ‘poor orphans on the other side of the world’ act like – because that is the experience we desire, and our money bring to life such an attraction.

The shocking revelation has been that volunteers, who have intentions to give some love back to children in real need, are tragically and inadvertently having the opposite effect.'

Not only are we maintaining the atrocities we would like to see eradicated within the world, we are in effect enhancing them and not in any way whatsoever addressing the very system, the very design which is responsible for them in the first place. After all, what this ‘voluntourism’ point illustrates, is that we cannot address the symptoms of a broken system through utilizing the same broken system as medium towards a solution.

'One volunteer I heard of turned up to teach at a school, and wondered why he didn't get a very warm reaction. Towards the end of his time there he discovered the local teacher had been fired because a Westerner was coming in to teach for free.'

In a world driven and moved by profit only, we cannot expect to alleviate poverty or alleviate the hardship of people through a profit-driven medium, as it is the very profit starting point, the worshipping of profit/money over Life/People – that lies at the heart of the problem, that pumps and thrusts its poison all throughout the body, leaving no area untouched.

While we see the hardship of remote places on our television screen, we want to travel to those distant places in the belief that the problem and solution lie in the same place. There is actually little that can be done by travelling to the other side of the world for a few weeks / a year and trying to alleviate the symptoms of a much darker dis-ease. It’s not by coincidence or genuine will to ‘work hard’ that we’ve created a Safe First World Bubble for ourselves. We need only to flip through history to see that we’ve acquired our wealth and security through the exploitation of others. In the past in direct forms, through conquest, through colonization – and today indirectly through economic ties whose nature and flow had already been determined, shaped and solidified within the previous Era of exploitation, now merely extending the same relationship in a different form – but really, nothing has changed.

Unless we change the values and principles of the system at home that we live by, we are not going to be able to bring about change ‘out there’. We are the power-center that maintains the problem, if we want to bring about change – we are right where we need to be.

The first step towards a global effect is to put into place the values and principles we want to live by and that we want to see others live by. A good place to start, would be the enforcement and safeguarding of Human Rights which can practically be employed through the implementation of a Living Income Guaranteed. Since the Right to Life has been historically linked to the ownership of money, making sure that everyone has enough money/funds available to live a dignified life is an absolute must.

To find out more about the Living Income Guaranteed, please visit:
http://livingincome.me and http://livingincomguaranteed.wordpress.com

All quotes from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2418074/Fake-orphanages-Bogus-animal-sanctuaries-And-crooks-growing-rich-Western-gullibility--gooding-gap-year-holidays-horrifyingly-callous-con.html

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Day 222: Justice and Human Rights - Part 3 - Substantive Justice

This blog post is a continuation to:

Day 218: Justice and Human Rights
Day 220: Justice and Human Rights - Part 2

Substantive Justice as part of Legal Justice has to do with the rules as laws are just or not. Here, what is specifically understood as 'just' is: are 'dues' specified in a just way. In other words - does the law specify who gets rewards and who gets punishment in a just way?

Obviously - this is again very concerning, because that would indicate that we have already as a society and as a humanity accepted that justice is maintained through handing out punishments and rewards. And where does this acceptance and allowance come from? From the time when we were children, where we were treated with this warped concept of 'Justice' by our parents. But why do parents punish and reward their children to, apparently, 'educate' them into becoming 'good people'? Do parents really try to assist the children in being the best and most honorable version of themselves - or are they actually just molding them in order to fit in in society and be able to survive in the current system? The current system where, if one has any actual consideration  for another, it will stand in your way of being successful - because to be successful requires of a person to not care of the consequences of one's actions in the current economic system.

Ultimately - why parents punish and reward is to encourage certain kinds of behavior and discourage other kinds of behavior. When a child throws a tantrum - the parent punishes to make the behavior stop. But does that assist the child? Does the child gain any understanding of the experience that they just went through? Obviously not and the reason why this is not happening is because parents themselves don't understand where they own anger comes from, where there own thoughts come from and how they accumulate energy within themselves until the culmination point reaches the point of no longer being able to suppress it and then it all just comes out. Parents cannot educate their children, because they have not done this research for themselves and have not assisted themselves to work through these experiences. And they never have because no-one ever assisted or educated them to be able to do this. And so the cycle has always continued - where children, generation after generation, are being controlled through manipulation as punishment and reward - learning to suppress what the parents have labelled as 'bad' and trying to present what the parents have labelled as 'good'. But no actual change takes place -the child is the same child, but has just learned how to blend in in order to avoid punishment and attract reward. So - the child is not a more honorable child because it has now been conditioned to act a certain way. Being an honorable person, a person with integrity, is not a consequence of conditioning, it is a consequence of consideration and understanding. So long as those points are not present, then we cannot speak of honor or integrity.

And the same principle is being applied in the Justice system - showing that the justice system still hasn't grasped the concept of Justice. A just society - is that a society in which human beings have been conditioned to tolerate each other to the highest degree possible - or is it a society in which each human has actual and real consideration for each other human? Those are two entirely different societies - so why are we settling for the one where Justice is but a mirage, an illusion, a projection and a farce?

For real justice to take place, any behavior that causes harm in a society should be addressed in the form of having the abuser go through a process of education and self-introspection, assisted by professional psychologists, to trace back the origin of their behaviors and being shown how this behavior can be corrected. I mean - how else are we expecting to change our society if we do not address the origin of the behavior that we see as problematic. Trying to 'keep a lid' on things is part of why outbursts take place - and so, our educational paradigm that forms the basis of our justice system is a very big part of the problem we face today, where crime is soaring, where people can barely tolerate each other, where hate speech runs rampant, where bickering is a daily sport, where wars of all kinds are so common that we've numbed ourselves to the news coverage images.

The very fact that the word 'Substantive' as in 'Substantive Justice' is used to denote the practice of punishing and rewarding as a means of managing and controlling human behavior already shows a contradictio in terminis.  Because nothing substantial is going on within it - in fact, it's all about upholding a make-belief idea of justice - a justice that does not actually care about creating the just society, a society of integrity and honor in each living being towards themselves and every other being - but a justice that protects the interests of the few - those who can afford them being protected.

To substantially change the fabric of society, we require to first pay attention to the substance of ourselves. To continue utilizing 'human nature' for the existence of system of control is unacceptable. We can change our nature, we can change our substance, and so - change our society to one that doesn't require us to use the carrot and the stick approach. We claim to be so great, to have created 'civilization', to push for scientific progress, to place a man on the moon - but when it comes to our own nature -the one thing that we are truly responsible for - we're suddenly incapable of changing it, too limited to put our own affairs in order? How can that be rationalized?

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Day 216: Children Seduced to Spend Real Money on Games

"A schoolboy has unwittingly racked up a £2,000 credit card bill playing an online game on his grandfather’s iPad.

Six-year-old Will Smith was innocently playing the popular children’s video game Tiny Monsters until his grandfather Barry Slatter, 55, was contacted by the fraud squad.

The family was unaware of little Will’s huge spending spree until his grandmother tried to use the credit card at Tesco, only to have it declined."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2205555/Schoolboy-massive-credit-card-playing-iPad-Tiny-Monsters-app.html#ixzz2RDDz9inE

"A 12-year-old boy accidentally ran up a £1,500 bill while playing Xbox Live - leaving his cash-strapped dad with no choice but to pick up the tab.

Sam Ghera's son Nik thought he was using up game points every time he 'improved' his characters while playing Call of Duty and Fifa.

However, with each click he was actually purchasing an online currency - which was draining money from his dad's account."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2171930/X-Box-Live-Boy-playing-Call-Duty-Fifa-ran-1-150-bill.html#ixzz2RDEEp7N7

More and more children's video games provide the option to buy additional features or short-cuts in the games with real money. Many of these games work with virtual currency as part of the game, but then switch to ask for real money for certain purchases. No need to say that children have a tendency to mix up imagination with reality. The difference between the two is simply not very obvious to them. Especially, when we're looking at Gaming Apps on touchscreen devices - where the characters of the game can actually be touched and moved by their finger. So - to expect a child to understand the difference between virtual money and real money - where real money is nothing more than numbers on a screen in the first place - is quite far-reaching.

So, what is the deal with these games where it is extremely easy for children to make real purchases on their parents' account? Are they trying to trick children to purchases they don't realize they're making - having children give money to a company - money which isn't even theirs? Having children doing the stealing for the company? Or is it about molding children to become the future generation of consumers? Where they learn to spend virtual money in a game and find that it is so easy - but then, as soon as real money comes in the picture, the parents deny them the right to buy what they want with real money. Then the child holds a grudge and they promise themselves that as soon as they have their own money, of which they can decide how they want to spend it - that they will always buy whatever they want to buy - creating the perfectly manipulable consumer. Because then, all that needs to be done is to spark a desire - and there you have it, an eager buyer.

Here is another example:

"Facebook has been accused of creating ‘tomorrow’s generation of problem gamblers’ by rolling out real money casino games.

Under a lucrative deal with online gaming company 888, the social networking giant will offer Las Vegas-style slot machines and games such as roulette and blackjack.

The move heralds a major expansion of its gambling sites.

Gamers will be able to place up to £500 on bets using a credit or debit card with promises of jackpots worth tens of thousands of pounds.

These will only be available in the UK, where gaming laws are more relaxed than in the US. Both Facebook and 888 insist they have safeguards to prevent minors from accessing the games.

These include checking the credit card details used against both their Facebook profile and the electoral register.

But there is nothing to stop children logging on to parents’ accounts and using card details already stored on the family computer. Already, Facebook users as young as 13 can use virtual slot machines on the website to win ‘credits’ – which have no monetary value.

But as soon as they turn 18, millions of children who use the social networking site will be bombarded with adverts for real money gambling games.

Facebook has three million UK users aged between 13 and 17. But a further one million are thought to be under 13 and pretending to be older.

Any of these could already be playing the ‘free’ slot and bingo games – which critics say form gambling habits because they simulate the thrill of hitting the jackpot.

More than a million people are already signed up to play 888’s free bingo game Bingo Island – although not all of these are UK based. They have to pay for online credits to play, but cannot win any real money back.
Concern: Critics worry users, including children using parents credit card details, will get hooked on the casino-style games

Yesterday 888 launched its first real money bingo application, with promises to roll out casino games. Critics fear many will be attracted to the new games to try to win money back, after experiencing the unrealistic odds offered on the free versions.

‘You win virtually every time you play one of the free games,’ said Mark Griffiths, professor of gambling studies at Nottingham Trent University.

‘Research has shown again and again that one of the biggest factors in developing problem gambling is playing free games online first. These children and teenagers today are the problem gamblers of tomorrow.’

He warned the deal with 888 could cause ‘the floodgates to open’ as gambling companies dive into the social media frenzy to make money. It is thought Facebook will take a 30 per cent cut of all bets placed.

In August, Facebook launched its first ‘real money’ gambling game with Bingo Friendzy, which offers bingo and slot machines. But the deal, done with Gamesys Group, is relatively small compared with the potential influx of gambling giants who could queue up to join Facebook if the venture proves to be profitable.

Itai Frieberger, chief operating officer of 888, said: ‘Our Facebook play for fun offerings have found a significant audience, and we are very excited by the opportunity real money gaming on Facebook provides.’ He said the company would prevent users who are under 18 on Facebook from even seeing the games.

A spokesman for Facebook said Bingo Friendzy players are subject to ‘strict account acceptance controls verifying their identity, and that they are over 18 and located in the UK.’ Gambling will not be promoted to Facebook members registered as under 18, it added.

Any of these could already be playing the ‘free’ slot and bingo games – which critics say form gambling habits because they simulate the thrill of hitting the jackpot."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2247087/Fury-Facebook-online-casinos-Social-network-tempting-young-gamble-new-betting-games.html#ixzz2RDWYaO3H

If capitalism, as it says, is all about the freedom of the individual and about making your own choices - then how come an army of consumer-addicts is being created?

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Day 198: Why are Parents feeding their babies Mashed CheeseBurgers?

For the full article, please go to:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2285889/Cash-strapped-mum-pureed-CHEESEBURGERS-child-didnt-know-cook.html 

“A mother totally ill-equipped for parenthood has approached the authorities for help after admitting she feeds her baby pureed cheeseburgers because she cannot cook.”

“Significant numbers of youngsters also arrive at primary school not toilet trained and cannot even use a knife and fork, according the Child Poverty Commission.

Many of these households say they are too poor to buy items like fruit and vegetables as costs continue to rocket, but the truth is far too many cannot cook at all, family support groups say.“

“Independent child poverty expert Michelle Kennedy, who chairs the commission, admitted she 'gulped' out loud after hearing the claims.

Another woman who was given a carrot also admitted she had no idea what it was, she said“

It’s interesting how when we are faced with people/parents who are unable to feed their children properly either due to a lack of money or education (which is kind of the same since education and money are closely tied), that we have to *gasp* or *gulp* and are all shocked at this ‘inconceivable’ notion. We then go about judging the parents as being inadequate and evil for doing this to their children – but we never ask: how did this come about? After all, we are living in a society, as a group of people. When there are people who are unable to feed their children adequately due to insufficient funds, education and cooking skills – then this does not reflect badly only on the parents – but on society as a whole. In the end, we as a society are what shape and pattern human beings that come into this world, and if the end result of that shaping and patterning is a human with no education, no money and no cooking skills – then obviously there is a problem at the core as society.

When I went to school, we received zero attention with regards to cooking, nutrition or how to deal with children. Sure, maybe when I was 5 we once made French toast with sugar – but this is hardly something to base your cooking foundation on as a possible future parent.

There were some directions you could take within high school that had cooking and nutrition modules – but these were looked upon as ‘low’ and ‘last resort’ type of educational curriculum. I studied Latin at that time and this was considered to be the curriculum to take if you plan on going to university and become like a doctor or whatever else would be a ‘high status’ job with a big income stream. I mostly got taught theoretical subjects with zero relevance to the life I was living and had basically no use for it in my everyday life – all it was about was setting myself up in a job to make good money. In the meantime, those who were going for a direction that was practical in nature like cooking, like nutrition, like technology and handy-work type of things – things that are actually important and foundational to living life on Earth – were looked down upon like they were scum.

I mean, it’s all pretty much in reverse because you can only allow yourself to indulge in the theoretical once you’re practical has been established. We are looking down upon life essential skills because ‘there’s no money in it’ and have completely lost perspective of what is important in Life – yes that’s right LIFE is important in LIFE.

Within Equal Money Capitalism, the money point will immediately be sorted out – since employment is a basic right and thus income is a basic right and guaranteed. One would thus be able to purchase nutritious food for oneself and one’s children.

In terms of education as cooking skills and nutritional information – this will become part of a child’s and youngsters’ curriculum. Food and eating is something we do every day – without it we die, as such it should take in an essential position within one’s education.

As a result, people will be able to feed themselves and their children properly – where even within just the parents being prepared, the children will get acquainted with food, nutrition and cooking in the home environment from an early stage. Children will be well fed, which will support their physical and mental development which in turn assists in achieving their utmost potential in life – where manifestations such as malnutrition will be eliminated as a limitation in life.

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Day 164: Equal Money Capitalism - Preparing the Road for Change

Note: The EMC is an entirely new project that was started 3 days ago. We’re at the moment in the phase where we are brainstorming by answering questions. It’s a messy process – but an effective one to get all the relevant points addressed. So – also note that points will evolve and change as we go as we are not setting things in stone, but on a journey towards designing the EMC. The principles upon which EMC is based are laid out in the previous blog-post. From those principles, we work our way towards what life in EMC would practically be like and how the system will function from an economic perspective.

CHILDREN

When a child is born, the parents' company/companies will allocate an equal profit share for the child - which will be added to the parent's profit share. Every parent will have a company - because everyone will be employed.

UNEMPLOYMENT / FULL EMPLOYMENT

If unemployment exists - the government must step in to create jobs where possible - because employment is a basic human right.

ROLE OF GOVERNMENT

The government will still play a role to provide everyone with their basic human rights such as healthcare, education, housing, sanitation, roads, employment etc. So - the government will fund these points through taxes. The only tax that will exist are the value-added tax on products - this will be part of the labelling of products - where it'll show the percentage of the price that goes to tax and for what the tax will be used. There will be no need for an income tax to redistribute income in a fair way - because income will be distributed fairly from the get-go.

WILL VAT GENERATE ENOUGH INCOME TO PAY FOR ALL THE INFRASTRUCTURE: SANITATION, CLEAN WATER ETC?

VAT will be added to each product in a way to make sure there is enough within the common pool of money - which is the tax - to ensure all the basic rights can be provided. Also consider that with all military expenditure falling away - there will actually be quite a substantial amount of money available to governments with which to fund these projects.

DEBT

In terms of debt - whether it will be erased at the moment of implementation of EMC: all debt will be forgiven - it was not real to start with in any case.

MENIAL TASKS

All the jobs that no-one will want to do will disappear - the same point to the EMS applies- technology will have to be developed to replace those points - like self-cleaning toilets and stuff like that - it already exists.  All jobs of slavery that one wouldn't do if it weren't for the need to survive will go *poof*.

Initially, some jobs which are not nice will still have to be done, as the specific production processes to create particular technology/machinery has not yet been adjusted during this transition period. So for a moment, those jobs will still have to be done until the transition is complete - this will become part of the compassion department because you are doing it for the betterment of everyone. These type of jobs can be rotational in nature.

ROLE   OF EQUAL MONEY CAPITALISM WITHIN EQUAL MONEY SYSTEM

EMC is a transition to EMS - though it can still be seen - once an EMC is in place, whether it is desired/necessary to transition to EMS. In the end - the result is what matters, and this is always Equality and a Life Worth Living.

ABUSE

Abuse is psychological disorders as it harms innocents and we will prevent harm in every way possible, corruption will be very difficult in EMC. Remember the profit share motive is not one that allows boundless profits--it allows equal profits based on a life value.

OVERSIGHT IN EMC

Within EMC the principle will be that everything is to work in harmony with each other. Therefore - dependent on which level a point of disharmony occurs, it will be addressed accordingly. If there is a worker within a company that is not acting in a way that is best for the company as a whole - this point will be addressed by a tribunal within the company. If it is an entire company that is behaving in a disharmonious way - it will be addressed by government departments.

PRICING

Pricing on products will no longer be based on expensive or cheap-- or making profit --but rather sustainable pricing that ensures enough money in circulation to make the system function effectively.

Profit is not to be understood in the same way as it is now. At the moment - profit is what is left after wages have been paid and production costs are covered. Within EMC - there will be no wages - your profit will be your wage. So - every time a product is scanned when it is bought - the computer sees what percentage of the price is allocated to whom - and immediately the money-allocation happens accordingly. So - there's no need to wait a year to calculate profits - it will be immediate.

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Day 114: The World is Our Legacy

I commit myself to refute the idea and perception that controlling/ruling/dominating another/others is a sign of power, prestige and superiority and something to be proud of.

I commit myself to stop limiting responsibility to stop my involvement/participation within a certain situation at a point where I feel satisfied, without considering all participants of the situation and whether or not I have taken complete responsibility as a participation of the creation of this situation.

I commit myself to take a good look at our countries, our world, ourselves to see what we have created, where it has become acceptable to fuck people up and then toss them to the side under the guise of empowering them to be independent - and I commit myself to work towards the correction of human behaviour so that such acts are no longer tolerated and categorised under 'normality' - but seen as what they as crimes against life - so that we no longer require to live in fear of one another of how another may disadvantage me and therefore, have to do it unto them first.

I commit myself to rid myself of all taboos - where no topic is off limits and all cards are on the table - so that, in our words, we can see ourselves and address ourselves - not allowing any points of dishonesty to be hidden in silence/forgetfulness/ignorant bliss - so that we may learn what it means to be responsible beings who are accountable for their thoughts, words and deeds.

I commit myself to stop all forms of abuse for personal gain - whether it be through direct or indirect, economic, political or military means - as it is unacceptable to treat another in a way we wouldn't want to be treated and if such tendencies come up - it is a flagpoint that there exists a perception that 'this is the only way' and therefore, I commit myself in that moment to pursue an approach of working out a solution that benefits everyone involved.

I commit myself to be open about the mistakes I have made - both towards myself and others, so that both myself and others can learn from my mistakes and I commit myself to educate future generations on the mistakes of the current and previous generations so that responsibility can be taken to stop the sins of the fathers of perpetuating the same mistakes over and over again - but instead stand up for what needs to be done to create a better world for everyone.

I commit myself to take full responsibility for my thoughts, words and deeds so that I can be certain that my change is real and not a mere pretense towards bettering myself and thus, bettering the world.

I commit myself to take full responsibility for the world so that when I have children I can look them in the eye without regret, without shame - because I have done all I can to correct the mistakes of this and previous generations and lowered the burden on the next one - so that, over time, as each generation stands in openness and responsibility of their mistakes - we can take them on one by one - and so, generation after generation, slowly but surely create a better world for all equally as one.

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Day 22: Daily Mass-Massacre of Children Happening under Our Watch

"Some 21,000 children die every day around the world.

That is equivalent to:

• 1 child dying every 4 seconds
• 14 children dying every minute
• A 2011 Libya conflict-scale death toll every day
• A 2010 Haiti earthquake occurring every 10 days
• A 2004 Asian Tsunami occurring every 11 days
• An Iraq-scale death toll every 19–46 days
• Just under 7.6 million children dying every year
• Some 92 million children dying between 2000 and 2010

The silent killers are poverty, hunger, easily preventable diseases and illnesses, and other related causes. Despite the scale of this daily/ongoing catastrophe, it rarely manages to achieve, much less sustain, prime-time, headline coverage."

Anup Shah, Today, around 21,000 children died around the world, Global Issues, Updated: September 24, 2011

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to not realise that while the casualties in wars and conflicts and earthquakes and tsunamis are considered huge tragedies that receive major attention on the news, the fact that 21,000 children die every day barely ever gets mentioned.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to pretend to care by pondering over huge catastrophes when they are mentioned and given attention on the news, yet not give a damn about the millions of dying children just because they don't mention it very often on TV - proving that I don't actually care about people and their well-being, but only pay attention when they mention tragedies that could also happen to me - like a major conflict breaking out or natural disasters occurring, which shows that I don't really care about the people who experience the tragedies right now, but that I am worried about my own ass being on the line one day.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to question a world and a system wherein the equivalent of a major earthquake killing 21,000 young children occurs every day to which the world remains mute.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to not question a system wherein the mass-murdering of children through malnutrition, starvation and disease is barely given any attention, except on global meetings or concerts, and even then, as soon as those campaigns or meetings conclude, the media coverage disappears again and everyone continues going about their daily lives while quietly children continue to die - TO DIE!

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that if my children were dying of hunger, malnutrition and disease, I would stand up and make sure adequate help is provided - yet when it concerns someone else's children on the other side of the world, it's suddenly not an issue anymore and apparently not worth my time and effort.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that if I am incapable of caring for a child, no matter whose child it is, then it proves I am incapable of unconditional love and thus not fit to be a parent.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that apart from the problem of children dying every day is not mentioned, the fact that wealthy countries are a part of the problem is mentioned even less.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that if I think that those children dying over there is not my problem that this is an indication that I have to urgently educate myself on how this world works, because in our current economic system, 21,000 children Have to die daily in order for the wealthy to maintain their lifestyle.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to condemn child sacrifices in religious rituals without realising that we sacrifice 21,000 children every day in the name of capitalism.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to see and realise how ridiculous the argument 'we've got nothing better' sounds in terms of why we accept capitalism, in the face of these disasters.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise the extent of brainwashing that is going on when the only times we hear about child deaths in developing countries it is in the context of promises of pledges from the wealthy, powerful countries to the poorer ones who apparently receive abundant goodwill, without even mentioning

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to see and realise that the mainstream media is perpetuating poverty and as such a cause of it.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to stay quiet about dying children in the media because of not wanting to make people feel bad with continuous depressing stories and therefore rather play entertainment or good news because happy people are happy buyers.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that the reason why the media is not performing its role as a watchdog of humanity, is once again because of money - because if the same story is repeated every day this may result in lower television viewing ratings, which will in turn have consequences for advertisers whose adds will gain less exposure.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to only play sensationalism on TV because then the viewing rates will be high and corporations will make big bucks while the population remains blissfully oblivious to the reality of the world we live in.

I commit myself to expose the atrocious consequences of our current economic system where thousands upon thousands of children are allowed to die every day.

I commit myself to show how the capitalistic system can never work for everyone and is therefore unacceptable and needs to be revised with utmost urgency since every day the capitalistic economic system runs the world 21,000 more children die.

I commit myself to educate people on what it means to truly care and unconditionally love where it doesn't matter who is suffering - it is unacceptable and action must be taken to stop the abuse.

I commit myself to establish an economic system that makes sure each child is fed properly and receives the best health care in order to eradicate deaths from starvation, malnutrition and easily treatable diseases in children.

I commit myself to establish an economic system where each child will receive the best of care so that it doesn't matter where the child was born or who its parents are - all are equal in the face of life.

I commit myself to transform media in a way that its only concern is unbiased record keeping and reporting of events and history, from the starting point of learning from events with the goal of perfecting Life for All.

I commit myself to transform media from an entertainment money-making business into an educational instrument through which we are able to continuously assess how we as humanity are walking as a group and in relation to our environment as the plants and animal kingdom, in order to ensure the best possible life for all living beings on Earth.

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Day 8: Consuming Children as Commodities

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to blame economic theorists for treating children like consumption goods or commodities within their theoretic models, while empirical studies actually show that this truly is how parents make their decision in terms of having a child or another child - where children are treated as any other consumption good.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise the implication of this point; that parents plan to consume their children in order to obtain personal satisfaction.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that a child is not something to be consumed and that the decision of having a child should not rest on the expected satisfaction I'll be able to derive from having a child.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that having children has always been selfish - to fulfil the parents' life, to gain more satisfaction, to have a feeling of accomplishment, etc - without even considering if you would want to have yourself as a mother or a father - only ever considering my wants, my needs, my desires.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise the craziness of the current economic system where the whole system spins based on individuals attempting to satisfy their wants, needs and desires - up to the point where children are but another way of attaining a sense of fulfillment.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to be abhorred at the idea of child trade, where children are traded like an item on a market - not realising that in the very decision to have a child, a parent does the exact same thing, treating a child like a commodity, where a parent tries to answer the question of how much the child is worth to them and what they're willing to trade in order to have a child.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that making the decision to have a child in this way, is actually supporting the manifestation of child trade in this world.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to value everything and everyone within my world and the world in general in terms of how much I'm willing to pay for it and how much benefit and personal satisfaction I would be able to obtain from it - always making value-judgments from a self-interested perspective, not realising that life is inherently valuable, independent of me.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to be surprised when the actual experience of having a child is disappointing, while this shouldn't come as a surprise because an expectation was created based on a desire in terms of how well the child would 'quench a thirst' within self and in the same way where if we buy something it is always expected to be 'more' than what the actual experience is of obtaining, using or consuming the good, where we eventually get tired of the item and want to move on to something more exciting - the experience of having children won't correspond to what we had expected.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that if I make the decision of having a child based on how well the child will satisfy my personal wants, needs and desires, I shouldn't have children in the first place - because the actual experience of having a child will be nothing like what I had expected it to be - yet, contrary to stuff that you buy and get tired of after a while as using or consuming it doesn't provide you with the same amount of satisfaction that it initially did - you can't just toss children in the garbage can or bring them back to the shop for a refund.

I commit myself to the redefinition of the word value, where value is no longer defined in terms of the expected satisfaction, fulfillment and gratification something will yield me, but stands in relation to the value of life itself.

I commit myself to creating a world where the decision to have children will no longer be limited and determined by money.

I commit myself to educating parents and prospective parents so that they may see and understand that children are not just commodities with which to fulfill oneself, but are actual beings that require your support and your assistance to develop themselves as effectively as possible to be able to live a fulfilling life of their own.

I commit myself to show how humanity has accepted and allowed children to become part of the definition of life that has been presented through consumerism as that which is acquired through money as but an external representation of completion / fulfillment / purpose for the individual that give the individual an experience of completion / fulfillment / purpose, where having a child / raising a family has become but part of the consumer's process of the pursuit of happiness which is the pursuit of acquiring goods / things such as a home, a car, a husband / wife, an education, a bank account, a retirement plan, a vacation home, a lifestyle, a social group, so that one can view one's self in comparison with others as having accomplished the 'building of a life' -- where, in this process of the pursuit of happiness as 'building a life', one was so consumed with consuming the pursuit of happiness / building a life that one lost sight of the fact that one brought into this world a living being that had the opportunity to grow into the best possible human it could be that could take responsibility for this world -- an opportunity that was stolen from the child by the parent when the parent passed on the pursuit of happiness / acceptance of the consumerist system to the child.

I commit myself to stop accepting and allowing myself to consume life in my own pursuit of happiness, and stop accepting and allowing everyone else to consume life in the pursuit of happiness.

I commit myself to show how through the media in movies, TV, commercials, life is presented as the pursuit of happiness as the accomplishment of building a life through consumerism and that this presentation / definition of life is used to brainwash humans to occupy themselves with the pursuit of fulfilling a picture in their mind of what life is, to distract them from the abuse that goes on daily in the name of profit for the few.

I commit myself to show how the human allows itself to be brainwashed by the media to occupy itself with feelings of accomplishment and achievement through consumerism because it is too afraid to stand and stop allowing abuse - and to show how the parent then passes on this pattern to the child, producing another consumer engineered by those who abuse life in the name of profit.

I commit myself to value Life instead of the pursuit of accomplishment as it has been presented to me through the media / consumerism as the acquisition of goods.

I commit myself to re-define accomplishment as the creation of a world that is best for all, and to give a world that is best for all to my child so that my child can fulfill its potential as a responsible being that cares for life.

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Day 2: From ENCAGEment to ENGAGEment - The Origin of Laziness

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to submit to the idea that people will only be willing to work if they are rewarded for it.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to subject myself to a limited view of the human being, where a human being can only be motivated by motives of personal gratification.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to believe that laziness and aversion to work are an inherent trait of humankind.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to see and realise that as a child, I was keen to learn new things and about new things and I didn’t need anyone to tell me that I would be rewarded for it.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that we have created the human condition of laziness and aversion to work through our educational system where a distinctive line has been drawn between funtime and worktime.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that by creating school to be an environment of boredom and compulsion, we limit the natural inquisitive nature of children as human beings to explore, engage and try out different things.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that by making children be quiet and sit still while having to listen and essentially take orders, we are programming children to limit themselves to only that: a passive robot who eventually doesn’t want to do anything but sit on his ass and have other people tell him what to do and how to do it as long as the right incentives are provided.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that schools are a production house for rotten children and rotten humans who have forgotten what it means to be a child, what it means to be a human and have completely subjected and limited themselves to external incentives to move their ass.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that if we change our schooling and education system, where we allow children to learn through engaging with and exploring the world in a relevant and practical way, we will create human beings who are self-motivated and passionate about life.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to assume to know the true nature of human beings without considering that this nature was not inherently there at birth, but created throughout a child’s formative years by his/her environment.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to claim that the free market system that works with personal incentives and personal gratification is the only one that can ever get human beings to engage themselves to do the tasks that need to be done to sustain humanity and the environment we share – because it is based on the apparent ‘true nature’ of the human being, without realising that what/who human beings are now is not necessarily who they have to be and all they can be.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that in claiming that the free market system is the best economic system imaginable based on the argument that it provides the correct incentives for human beings on an individual level to produce needed goods and services for society at large – is merely begging the question, since it is this very system, through the educational system, that created human beings to be these rotten creatures in the first place.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to give up any sense of self-respect within and through the very acceptance of the belief that all I am and all I ever can be is a creature that needs to continuously poked with external incentives and motivations to do something, to be something, to make something out of myself and my world.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that the reason why children are ‘cherished’ in the eyes of adults is because the children show them who they were, who they could have still been, if only they hadn’t given up on themselves.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to believe that what’s done is done and that it is too late now to try to re-educate ourselves and re-discover ourselves.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to content myself with simply rotting away in something I call ‘my life’ – occupying myself with that which gives me the fastest and highest level of personal gratification – while completely detaching myself from the actual, real, physical reality, missing my life as I encage myself in a bubble of my mind.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to trade engagement with enCAGEment and actually believe that this was a good deal.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to forget what it means to give and only look at what I can receive.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that an outflow of our current economic system is that, because everyone is so busy focusing on what they can ‘get’ – there are billions who don’t get anything, because no-one remembers to give what was received in return.

I commit myself to re-designing the educational system in the world so as to create effective human beings who understand and embrace the act of giving and receiving – through providing an environment where children are able to flourish and develop and express their unconditionality.

I commit myself to exposing that suppressing a child’s natural expression is a crime to life.

I commit myself to break through the limitations we as humans have subjected ourselves to, through walking back in time to correct our mistakes and find ourselves again.

I commit myself to the redefinition of what it means to be a human being in such a way that to be a human being as the living word is something to be proud of.

I commit myself to expose incoherent, fallacious and disgraceful justifications free marketers use to defend a system of abuse and horror.

I commit myself to become a human being who motivates and moves self with great ease within the understanding of how I can fulfill myself in participation with what is here and what is here to be done.

I commit myself to redefine the word ‘work’ in a way that it includes rather than excludes fun, where work flows as who we are, here, in every moment.

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