It is blatantly obvious to even the most conventional people that the lifestyle currently experienced cannot continue unabated. The environmental destruction, now on an accelerating path, will cause changes if we do nothing to change ourselves.
Almost everyone surely agrees that the competetive lifestyle in which we live can be improved upon. We are slowly and gradually allowing ourselves to be exterminated.
There are now literally thousands of groups active around the world who are vividly aware of our self-destruction, and who are organising meetings, carnivals, newspapers, articles and books in a last minute effort to ensure survival.
It is only the established institutions which are dragging their feet - frightened of change in case they lose some money.
Slowly, but surely, the world is awakening to its own reality. The era of money has ended. The greed and corruption and secrecy must all end, or we will all die. It is time for us to make drastic changes in the way we think and operate.
The spiritual people are expecting a raise
in consciousness to save us.
The environmental people are expecting
the cessation of destruction to save us.
Everyone is expecting someone else or something
else to save us. Few have realised that we have to save ourselves.
The ideals of a new life will not just happen. We will not just wake up one morning and find that all of the problems have disappeared as if by magic. We ALL have to actually do something, individually and personally. We may do it as part of a group, but passive membership is no longer sufficient. We have to make decisions regarding adjustments. We have to stop doing what our neighbour is doing, just because it is "expected". What is expected now is total disaster, so we had better so doing something unexpected. We have to realise that what we did yesterday is destructive, and that tomorrow we must act differently.
The stranglehold if governmental and corporate oppression is not making things easy for us. We do not want rebellion, or war, in the negative sense. We need a form of positive understanding.
No matter which culture we have been brought up in, we all have a reasonable understanding of "right living". What we all have to do, is to make positive decisions and positive steps towards right living.
We all know what is right, yet we all continue to do what is wrong. We have egos bigger than our sense, and we have to start to think in terms bigger than ourselves. This enables us to understand the reason for our existence, and to move towards the feeling of true brotherhood of all sentient beings on the planet.
We can all co-operate
together for the good of all - a far superior lifestyle to constant competing
against each other for the good of ourselves. If something needs to be
done, and it is done in a co-operative way, then achievement is simple.
What prevents us at present is the constant competetive attitude whereby
there is also someone or something getting in the way. The resultant apathy
means that most people have decided that they as an individual can have
no effect on the world, but soon we will realise that the only thing which
affects the world is individuals. When we get out of the out-dated class
thinking, and move to a true understanding of equality, then we realise
that each one of us is capable of having an effect. And then we will start
to act, and the effect will take place.
We all know that
our life styles can be better, but few of us understand what better is!.
In Thailand at present, we are in a position to be front runners in effecting the global changes necessary. We have the opportunity to examine our lives, think for ourselves, and stop following others down the same mistaken path. We can stand up and be counted, and decide to hell with the Western greedy methods, and promote the Eastern loving methods.
It is now a serious case of LEARN TO LOVE - OR DIE.
We need to climb out from under our shells, and realise that a life in harmony is the way to go. We need to move away from the lives in which we allow ourselves to be controlled by others. We need to develop an independent spirit which is driven by the love of our fellow man. We need to stop judging others by our own standards, and to start to understand that we all have differnet standards. We all have a desire for freedom, to be in a position to do the things which bring us true satisfaction, without being told by some official or other that what we are doing is wrong in their eyes. When we love our fellow man, we have no desire to conduct ourselves in a manner which brings pain or hardship to anyone or anything, and we start to operate on a basis of "right living".
The reason for this is that people are realising that in one fell swoop, the major controlling tentacle of the Fourth Reich, and one of its operating divisions, The IMF, has been severed, and now there is a chance of escape from the fatal grasp. Now, for the first time ever in history, the role of the small business will be understood.
In England, 20 years ago, eighty percent of the work force were either self-employed or worked for an organisation with less than 20 employees. But they had absolutely no voice. The only voices were those of the government, the large corporations, or the labour unions whose members worked for the large organisations. So the only voice heard came from less than 20% of the workforce, resulting in a nation organised for less than 20% of the people. This pattern is repeated throughout the planet in increasing proportions, and the percentage of Thailand's 60 million people who have a say in how their lives are controlled is minimal. This is the effect of the Western type of democracy, which is primarily controlled by Big Business, which in turn is controlled by Big Oil.
Thailand does not need this type of democracy. The percentage of the Thai population who have any serious contact with Big Business is minimal., and because the socalled Democratic governments of today place total emphasis on money, and therefore on business, then we have a majority of the population who have no serious representation. This is not democracy, so why do we continue to try to pretend that it is!
If Thailand is to succeed as a nation, with the traditional care and compassion for the Thai people, then we need to make some speedy and drastic changes.
We need to stand back from the usual run of the mill conversations, and look at Thailand as a part of the planet as a whole. Then we will be able to see the unique and critical position in which Thailand currently rests.
The details of the two sides of the see-saw are outlined in an earlier document entiltled "Two alternatives for Thailand". This document was produced in April '98, and the effects of considering only one of the alternatives over the past 6 months is clearly demonstrating the increasing urgency for a consideration of the other alternative. ( (See - Two Alternatives for Thailand) .
As a result of the current emergency situation, we now feel it necessary to begin to outline the details of how to put the alternative in to operation. We refer to this as Plan B for Thailand, or simply Plan B. Plan B for Thailand .
The timing is now absolutely perfect for an IMMEDIATE decision which will start off the path to the New Thailand.
Now that Mr Mahathir has fixed the Malaysian
ringit, and has effectively created an independent state within the global
economy, Thailand must find it easy to follow suit.
With the ringit and baht fixed, the
small businessman would no longer be paying fluctuating prices for his
imports, and will be receiving reasonably fixed prices for his exports.
If we assume that the average business makes no more than 20% net profit,
and we then further know that a currency fluctuation on a purchase can
increase the price overnight by as much as 5%, and similarly a further
5% loss can be made on export, then it becomes obvious that at least half
of the money which a small businessman has at his discretion requires to
be reserved for the gambles of currency fluctuation. This has the effect
of millions of people concentrating on currency fluctuations, instead of
concentrating on their business. The trading in currencies in 1975 consisted
of 20% speculative transactions, and 80% "real" transactions. Today, the
real transactions are only 2.5%. (80% to 2.5%
in only 23 years - See From the Real Economy to the Speculative by Bernard
Liataer)
Even the thousands of "one-man/woman" vending" business, (who are never considered) are seriously affected. As prices fluctuate rapidly due to "inflation" or "currency changes" or import taxes, or crop shortages or whatever, the control of even the smallest business becomes a gamble, and whenever a gamble takes place, it is always the small time gambler, or poor person, who loses.
Once this currency noose is removed, and total concentration on business is again available, then the business will flourish.
By removing ourselves from the control of The Fourth Reich's (see Earth Read-Out for an explanation of the Fourth Reich), currency controllers, operating through the IMF and World Bank, then we are more able to be in control of our own lives.
Many small businessmen (and women) in Thailand have no interest whatever in growing into one of the megacorporations which have a say in the controls provided by the Fourth Reich. The main idea of their business is to allow them to use their talents for the benefit of others, while securing a reasonable livelihood for their family. They have no desire to sell and move on, or to become in charge of thousands of employees. They are not on the same power trail as the people who run the megacorporations, and they prefers not to deal with them as suppliers. Their preferred suppliers are small businesses similar to their own, where needs can be discussed between the persons in charge of the businesses, thereby ensuring a more full understanding of the two needs. What chance of talking to Bill Gates about buying Office 97! for my small business?
So what is proposed now, is that this present time - today- is the absolutely perfect time for Thailand to put into action Plan B:
