NEO Magazine Issue 1 | Page 46

being printed on the back of debt that will saddle generations to come in order to pay for it all – and with it the bonuses of those already grossly wealthy investment bankers and politicians who have created all this mess. Yes, those politicians who refuse to recognize the already clear scientific warnings of climate change, because they are behest to multinational corporations that enrich themselves in the most profitable business of all – fossil fuels. These same politicians wave their finger at the world and talk of the need for governance and transparency, while sending the poor off to fight wars that their children will only play on video games -- funded through the global market offering of another junk tech stock that will be traded just like an oil derivative. In this decade of protest, people across our earth have responded to the dysfunctional politics by occupying public space, engaging in non-violent disobedience and forming transparent ad-hoc governing councils in open areas or locally where they are creating community economies of their own. Essentially, people are taking the power back! They are espousing issues, but do not promote cartoonish politician personalities, an antithesis to the political arrangements decried. And the messages are being sent through unedited live news streams via the Internet. treme, globalization of everything – cannot continue because our planet’s resources simply cannot sustain it. And the increasing numbers of people falling below the poverty line -- and extreme poverty line -- will not tolerate it. The rules have to change. To change the economics, it means changing the assumptions, which really means changing those tiffany twisted values that underlie it all. We need a new consensus! Enter the New Earth Consensus We need a New Earth Consensus. Built on principles of compassion, care and consideration for our fellow man and environment, not predicated on unbridled greed. It is time for all us to realize that we are all sharing planet earth, a single satellite in the orbit of our vast universe. If the mechanics of this planet fail to work, sustaining glaciers, ocean levels and arable land mass and forests (yes water-food security and the very lungs of our planet), then we will not have These protestors demand more than just a new swap of politicians. They call for reconstructing our global financial architecture. This requires new economic models to replace outdated ones, fundamental policy changes and a re-assessment of underlying assumptions and values that have long been taken for granted without question or consideration. Protestors across the planet, regardless of background, creed or birth, have united in a single voice. We have all had enough! It is time to change the rules of the game. That game -- the existing world order, the Washington Consensus blind belief in neo-liberalism taken to the ex- photography courtesy of laurence brahm The peaceful revolution has already gone global. And from it arises a new earth consensus.