Sound Of Sirens

This google thing has been working on me. You know, the thing with google’s intension to support positive change in the world. The competition…
Google is a corporation. In fact:

‘Google is the most popular search engine – it dominates the search engine market around the world. The newest statistics of the website efficiency analyzer Luna-Park show that Google has a market share of 95% in some European countries - for example in the Netherlands. 19 out of 20 Dutch use Google - a dangerous dominance. Whatever can’t be found on Google doesn’t exist – at least in Holland…. And an 89.2% market share in Germany and a market penetration of 90% in Poland and Bulgaria show that it is no different in other countries. The United Kingdom is an exception with a share of “only” 70%.’ (source stated below)

The goal of corporations is to make profit.
How does google make profit? Google is all about information and data. So now they call out to the world (in other words: the collective intelligence) to come up with ideas to help others. What is in there for them?
You cannot tell me they are just an innovative company and want to do good. They are not. If they want to do good, why do they cooperate with governments and military on censorship. There is a permaculture principle:

Information as a Resource:
Information is the critical potential resource. It becomes a resource only when obtained and acted upon.

Why do they inhibit this process?

The Dalai Lama was in Berlin yesterday and we participated in the demonstration to show our solidarity with the Tibetan People.
Knowing a bit on the background of the history of Tibet and the Dalai Lama it is beautiful and quite outstanding to hear him and witness his clarity, spontaneity and openness. Being a buddhist he believes in the interconnection and interdependence of all beings. (This is the same understanding modern science or indigenous people have and that plays, and will play more and more, a key role in our ability to create sustainable communities, or, to put it more bluntly: our ability to survive.) It is the understanding of: If you destroy the other, ultimately you destroy yourself.
This believe and wisdom is being put into prisons, tortured, massacred and intended to be cut off from the world. Its language, its traditions, its people are being wiped out for the sake of progress and stability.

Ok, this is about the media and its functions. Again: I do not claim to be an expert, call me a generalist, however, let’s see how far we get.

I’ll start with a quote of a beautiful essay by Donella Meadows, a professor, biophysicist, systems analyst, organic farmer, author, journalist and inspiration in the movement for sustainability. The essay is called ‘Dancing with Systems‘ and this particular part is about ‘Honouring and protecting information.’

A decision maker can’t respond to information he or she doesn’t have, can’t respond accurately to information that is inaccurate, can’t respond in a timely way to information that is late. I would guess that 99 percent of what goes wrong in systems goes wrong because of faulty or missing information.

If I could, I would add an Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not distort, delay, or sequester information. You can drive a system crazy by muddying its information streams. You can make a system work better with surprising ease if you can give it more timely, more accurate, more complete information.

Please be aware of that. And please be aware that socalled free trade is an invention that destroys lifes, cultures and our planet.
Also we do not have to go to the rain forest, to India or North America, the same thing is happening in Finland, where indigenous people are being marginalized and robbed of their rights, land is being taken and robbed of its resources, governments are backing corporations.
Watch this documentary: Last Yoik In Sami Forests?, check the website: www.elonmerkki.net

The shift, the change will come through us, through people who speak up, who demand their rights, who create lively cultures and lively democracies, who think and act as an interdependent world family, looking for ways from being dependend consumers to responsible producers.

We have to replace the well being of corporations again with the wellbeing of real people and real societies. We have to create and build new self-governing economies. Connect which each other, learn from each other.
Know more: Vandana Shiva on zmag.org
Connect: CivWorld Interdependence Day,
Find support: Post Carbon Institute (Assists societies in their efforts to relocalize communities and adapt to an energy constrained world.)
Transition Towns (Local responses to the challenges of climate change and peak oil. Relocalization, Network and Support)