Monday, February 28, 2011

Welcome to my World: Introduction

Welcome to my world, to my brainstorming sessions and my thoughts. These series are and attempt to give some structure to my ideas and to open to the public my thoughts about 'how' we can create the financial institutions of the future. I have been apprehensive to specifically address the 'how' for many reasons. The main one is, I don't want the community to think that I'm posing my ideas as 'the right ideas'. I don't want to give a formula or equation for the solutions I can think of. At the same time, followers have been asking for that 'how' and I feel like I am trying to avoid giving them an answer. With this conflict in my mind, I decided to give it a go. On the one hand, I am not sure if I am ready to write the entire idea but I need to start putting it together, so when you read, always remind yourself that you are more than welcome to disagree, give feedback, accept or reject all or part of the ideas proposed; that this is in no way a final document and almost everything is subject to change and I am more than happy if you influence those changes, in fact, you're encouraged to foster changes about this project. And on the other, I hope that this serves as inspiration, guidance or some sort of learning or analytic tool and resource to those who are starting to search and discover their own role as co-creators of this world.

So let me talk to you about my core believe. To me it is evident that an increasing number of people are becoming aware of the flaws of the current economic system. But more than that, people are not trusting those who manage their money, some of us do not believe in the banking system anymore. I do not know what they do with my money or where they invest it. I know now that they, knowingly or not, foster a world and a system of destruction. I do not blame them for doing this, I actually thank them for there was no other way for me to know that a better option is possible, if not because they have shown me how it shouldn't work. 

Thus, and after many years of personal conflict with the general accepted notions of economic growth, sustainability, consumption, climate change and so on, I came up with the idea that I need a bank or some sort of financial institution that actually projects who I am, an institution that I believe in, that is transparent, that makes sense...the current banking system just doesn't fit in my brain, neither my brain nor my heart understand it. It's been about 3 years of me completely rejecting the idea of rendering my, let's say, moral and professional values to the mainstream environmental job market, I absolutely refuse to accept a position where I need to invest 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for most of a year, in creating one-thousand-pages-reports about how not to trash the planet in one go but little by little and get paid for it. This rejection has its consequences: It can be said that I have no professional experience whatsoever. However, it has also given me opportunities that would have not appeared otherwise: It's been 3 years since I started to investigate about complementary currencies and I have now the opportunity to create the business I can be passionately invested with no regrets or moral/professional frustrations. At the moment, I can't see myself using my time in any other kind of permanent job. The course of this project is what ignites my brain, what lights my heart. It is some times overwhelming, but that is part of the process, it helps me to learn how to overcome the barriers that I put on my own path. 

So, that is the very brief personal background behind the project. I need a bank that I can trust and that helps me to build the world I want to see. The following series of posts will be about what I've been doing and what I think can be done to get there.


This graph should give you a brief idea of how things seem to be putting themselves in order. 




For the next 4 Mondays, you will be able to check a new post. Today, I'll start with what I've been asked for: My ideas of 'how' this institution may work, which corresponds to step 1 in the graph.


Always remember, if you want to make part of the project, send me an email to newecohumanity@gmail.com and I'll send you an invitation to our 'office' in BetterMeans. You can also be part of the conversation by leaving your comments or share links with us and other relevant thoughts and info in our facebook page. 

No comments:

Post a Comment