We all have dreams and hopes for a better future. It is good to remember that there is more that connects us than divides us. Let’s hope that 2013 is a time that we the people remind our elected representatives of this fact.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VTDVo5pHN8k&noredirect=1]
Shared with the server here at Denny’s in Arlington TX where I just enjoyed a breakfast “slam” and a fast wifi … thank you, Christine … touching and broadening …
Happy New Year!
Glad to share a bit of your New Year’s Day, Doug. In 2013, you will definitely have to come back to our corner of the world, where we are Idle No More! Happy New Year to you!
There is a precedent for people working together to achieve common goals and benefit of contributing to a common cause in the Co-operative Movement – still going strong in the UK – and in worker owned companies like John Lewis. Now is perhaps the time for ‘the people’ to take control of our own future through co-operative investment and ownership of resources in the creation of our sustainable future.
That’s a good reminder, Keith – sometimes the answers aren’t something we need to reinvent, rather we just to to reclaim them. With all of the banking fiascos and thievery in recent years, one wonders why Credit Unions (another kind of cooperative) haven’t become the place to put one’s money for middle and lower income earners. That would send a message to those banks who think they are too big to fail!
I am trying to get co-operative funders interested in working out a finance package to fit into the ‘zero carbon’ modular housing concept I am developing.
In the UK we have the Co-operative Bank, the Ecological Building Society and Triados Bank all of whom provide funding for co-operative ventures.
The main banks have told me quite frankly that they’ ‘have no appetite for real estate’, let alone untried ‘zero carbon’ housing. Time for new ways to develop our future !
Good luck with this project, Keith. I’m not surprised that the main banks don’t have an appetite for this kind of alternative housing, but I’m sure there are ways of going about it without their help. Thanks for your persistence and vision – it’s an inspiration!