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What's Behind the Dollar?

Sep 30 2008
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Money - where does it come from?  Money expert James Bernard Quilligan, Executive Director of the Center for Global Negotiations, describes where U.S. money comes from, and why, even today, all U.S. money comes from the private Federal Reserve Bank, not from the U.S. Treasury. The U.S. currency is to backed only by debt, but this was not always so!

Find out where all that money comes from, with author Krista Keenan.

Leo Burke Explains the Commons - #Commons Education Series A

Jan 17 2012
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Professor Leo Burke of the University of Notre Dame describes the commons and the benefits of a commons viewpoint in this interview recorded in Berlin, Germany at the commons conference sponsored by the Heinrich Boll Stiftung (Heinrich Boll Foundation) in late 2010.

Students interested in the commons should also read the following article about Professor Burke by another well-know commons expert, Jay Walljasper:

A World that Works for Everyone
By Jay Walljasper

Original article in Notre Dame Magazine:
http://magazine.nd.edu/news/27932-a-world-that-works-for-everyone/
PUBLISHED: WINTER 2011-12 POSTED IN: CAMPUS & COMMUNITY AND CURRENT AFFAIRS

You would expect Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business to focus its teaching on making profits from the world as it is instead of asking students to explore how to fundamentally change it.

An amazing visualization of KIVA.org and the flow of Money-for-Good-Will around the world

I just saw one of the great accomplishments of the 21st Century: KIVA.org, shown via an amazing video visualization of money flowing around the world:

http://vimeo.com/28413747

Please watch!

Cheers,

Kevin 

Investing in Farmers Markets Could Create Thousands of New Jobs: Union of Concerned Scientists

 http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/solutions/big_picture_solutions/market-forces.html

A great study from the Union of Concerned Scientists shows how supporting local agriculture is big jobs creator - and far more.  Local food is better, healthier, supports the local economy, and reduces the climate-impact of farming or food transportation - and provides new food security. Children taught sustainable agriculture are better-prepared to take care of themselves and their shared planet.

A big winner. It's clear that local self-sufficiency - especially in food - is a very important part of a sustainable and healthy future.

Cheers,

Kevin

The Elders take a strong stand against child marriage

I am very glad to see The Elders taking a strong stand against the terrible effects of forced marriages.

“We cannot improve the lives of the poorest and most marginalised women and girls until the impact of child marriage is addressed directly and openly - and we make a commitment to ending it.”

Quote from The Elders' website by Jimmy Carter and Fernando H Cardoso

http://www.theelders.org/womens-initiatives/child-marriage

We filmed the girls in Lucknow, India fighting to get an education in the face of severe pressure from their families to marry. The exchange of money as a social custom for marriages is a related very bad practice that must end, as it puts families in a terrible trap - with the newlywed girl likely the recipient of violence from her new mother-in-law if the dowry is deemed insufficient.

Common Healing - trailer v3 #Commons

Jul 17 2011
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Twelve Benefits of a Commons-Based Approach.  During the process of filming the documentary Common Healing, it has become clear that there are many benefits from re-looking at difficult, immovable situations from the ancient perspective of the commons.

Thomas Greco Explains the Debt-Basis of Modern Money - #Commons Education Series A

Apr 25 2011
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Banks create money by making loans. Author and money expert Thomas Greco uses simple analogies to explain how this process works. He also explains how Direct Credit Clearing offers a simple, legal, and effective means for eliminating the need for bank-derived debt using the 'credit commons' approach.

Greco explains how the debt-based money system (within which we unconsciously operate) creates an inevitable cycle of boom-and-bust, because interest payments on debt, in aggregate, inevitably outstrip the value of goods and services.

The resulting urgency to repay debt creates some of the catastrophes of our time: unsustainable usage of resources, overharvesting trees, mining to much, too fast, building houses too often - all to pay-off not only legitimate costs, but also illegitimate bank fees that do nothing productive in the economy.

Prerna Means Inspiration: Girls Refuse Forced Marriages to Gain an Education

Jun 14 2010
Prerna Means Inspiration: Girls Refuse Forced Marriages to Gain an Education Video Thumbnail

Prerna Girls School is a part of the Study Hall School in Lucknow, India. It serves the largely impoverished girl children of the surrounding slums, by providing educations to 540 girls from kindergarten through 12th grade (as of June 2010). Founded by Dr. Urvashi Sahni, herself a dynamic force of nature, Prerna is one of those places that show a good future can become a reality.

The astounding success of the Prerna Girls School program is a lesson to many others working for education, women's empowerment and solving a host of issues identified in the Millennium Development Goals as critical: health, education, poverty eradication, literacy, population pressure, environmental degradation, to name a few.

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People are organizing everywhere for a better planet.

Meet them, through the networks already in place -

  • near you,
  • like you,
  • for what you care about.

 

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