because one world is plenty
Angle of attack
One of the core purposes of the Global Swadeshi network as far as I understand it is to provide peer-to-peer support for local relief on a global scale: correct rapid response to natural and political disasters are required to maintain 'swadeshi' on the local scale.
As a result of this, we require an angle of attack for working with and successfully assisting victims of overpowering localized events like the Sichuan earthquake or the Myanmar cyclone - events that threaten economic self-sufficiency.
The members of the Global Swadeshi network come mostly from a background in international grassroots relief efforts in one way or another, with the Appropedia knowledge base, the Hexayurt ideology, the Open Farm Tech pure mastery... but when it comes to political borders, what are our options? Do we have any ways to fund, influence and assist (FIA) in large scale global events?
As I see it: We're attacking funding mostly from the bottom up - reengineering solved problems in far better ways, making them affordable, sustainable and more free. We're attacking influence in a Benklerian sense, trying to build on the wealth of the network as a entry point, sliding past the bureaucracies and going directly to the people. We're attacking assistance through education, trying to get people to realize their own potentials and showing people the how and the why rather than the who.
These three methods are great. They get us at least seventy percent of the way. How do we traverse the other thirty percent without sacrificing the implicitness, the elasticity and the buoyancy of our network - without taking the 'self' out of 'self-sufficiency'?
As a result of this, we require an angle of attack for working with and successfully assisting victims of overpowering localized events like the Sichuan earthquake or the Myanmar cyclone - events that threaten economic self-sufficiency.
The members of the Global Swadeshi network come mostly from a background in international grassroots relief efforts in one way or another, with the Appropedia knowledge base, the Hexayurt ideology, the Open Farm Tech pure mastery... but when it comes to political borders, what are our options? Do we have any ways to fund, influence and assist (FIA) in large scale global events?
As I see it: We're attacking funding mostly from the bottom up - reengineering solved problems in far better ways, making them affordable, sustainable and more free. We're attacking influence in a Benklerian sense, trying to build on the wealth of the network as a entry point, sliding past the bureaucracies and going directly to the people. We're attacking assistance through education, trying to get people to realize their own potentials and showing people the how and the why rather than the who.
These three methods are great. They get us at least seventy percent of the way. How do we traverse the other thirty percent without sacrificing the implicitness, the elasticity and the buoyancy of our network - without taking the 'self' out of 'self-sufficiency'?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Anthony Jaime on -
just curious - doesn't any sort of "efficient" self-sustaining funding require a different kind of infrastructure, at least on a general government level?
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Permalink Reply by Smári McCarthy on -
I'm more than slightly tempted to point out that you are making assumptions about the validity of the existence of government.
But yes. A different model is needed - a different approach entirely. Vinay and I have discussed digital microbanking via cellphones as a possible solution for this - the flip side of the coin cast by kiva.org.
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Permalink Reply by Anthony Jaime on
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how interesting - back in 1998 I was discussing that very subject...with the V man as well. and as far as any "assumptions" that you think I might have about government...to be quite honest I was thinking of a self governing body.
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Permalink Reply by Vinay Gupta on -
I should point out that in 1999 - before I invented the Hexayurt - this man was talking about me building cities in the developing world. Long eyes.
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Permalink Reply by Smári McCarthy on
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"Self governing" can mean a lot of things. Any democracy can be described as self-governing, regardless of the internal structure of self-governance. Democracy is a spectrum where on the one extreme you have the Bush-style America - elected totalitarian monarchy - and on the other extreme you have a Proudhonian socialist anarchy, and in between you get all the different arrangements you can see in modern democracies.
The funny thing is that a spectrum, being fairly unidimentional, manages to fairly well encompass the different available layouts for a two-dimentional relationship matrix on an arbitrary social graph. I should probably explain this in detail, but I won't until I figure out a problem I'm currently working on, which could be dubbed The Noisy Cleric Problem, but won't be.
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Permalink Reply by Anthony Jaime on
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alright...before you give me another lecture on the myriad forms of government and whatever else might strike your fancy....it was just me asking for a creative solution that perhaps most folks hadn't thought of yet. to be quite honest I was hoping to brainstorm a solution, not involve myself in a one-upsmanship contest. truce, neh?
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Permalink Reply by Smári McCarthy on
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I didn't mean it to be one. My mind is just doing odd things tonight. Sorry!
But there was definitely some good brainstorming in there... right?
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Permalink Reply by Anthony Jaime on
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you know - reading my replies...it seems that I was quite honest TWICE in this lil' ol' thread. "quite" ....ah well. must be an Abe Lincoln flashback or somethin.
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