Day 6: Economic Textbooks are the Blueprints for the Perfect Murder

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to be so preoccupied with acting like an intellectual that I have completely forgotten what economics practically means and implies.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to occupy myself with formulating nice theories and drawing fancy graphs that make everything of economy sound so wonderful and even Godly, without considering that all the simplifying assumptions that were made to get to these pretty graphs, are problematic and don’t apply in the real world.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to be a servant of the God of Money through devising theories and graphs that make it seem that the economic system indeed works – without opening my eyes and looking at the world, to see the real consequences of worshiping money as God.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that I have been brainwashed through education and training to the point where I can no longer see past even the fundamental principles of the free market system, but keep on building on it and keep on justifying it with more pictures, tables, theories and graphs.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that the numbers on my piece of paper aren’t just numbers but represent real people, real children, real animals and real plants – lives – that I play around with in my economic models, making them fit the picture as well as I can, as long as the math is right.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to be more concerned about presenting a neat theoretical model that will gain much appraisal from intellectual academic peers than with real-life issues that require attention, investigation and correction.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to only be worried and concerned about my own life and my own destiny, therefore, even if I am born in a country that is poverty-stricken, not spend one moment of my time on seeing how the economy requires to be adjusted in a way that will assist everyone, but instead – focus on gaining the attention and recognitionof economists in the developed world by acting as they do, focusing on the issues that they do and trying to represent the economy in a way that is beautiful and magnificent, while my fellow human beings, even of the country I grew up in, are starving and struggling – because at least, in joining the holy order of economists, I’ll have lifted myself out of that shithole.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise and see how the current economic system creates, allows and justifies murder through poverty and starvation.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that no-one else is going to come to fix the world and that if I have the knowledge and understanding of what the economic system is, then it is my responsibility to question its consequences and implications – and to stand up in exposing it and proposing solutions that will benefit everyone.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that theories are but theories and models are but models, yet that the real world is still out there and that neat pictures and graphs aren’t going to change that – but only make me feel better, make me feel like I have faith – because look at this magnificent system that regulates everything automatically for the apparent betterment of mankind!

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to sacrifice the lives of billions of people every day by accepting the most basic supply and demand curves through completely excluding them from the equation.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that it’s not because the system works in itself, that it works FORLIFE.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that in accepting equilibria and middle roads, it’s simply stating that we’re willing to sacrifice some for the benefit of others – yet, if we place ourselves in the shoes of the ones being sacrificed on the altar of the Almighty God of Free Market – we’d realise it’s not so free after all, because lives have to be paid.

I commit myself to the exposure of the dogmatic beliefs of the value of free market systems and how they in fact allow, create and justify genocide on a global scale.

I commit myself to the exposure of the hypocrisy of economists who have become but servants of God as Money – concerned with nothing but their own status and wealth.

I commit myself to say what needs to be said in order to bring people back with their feet on the muddy ground – where real lives are being lived and real lives are being lost.

I commit myself to stop all compromise through acceptance of middle roads as what is always seen and portrayed to be the perfect solution, hides the evil that perpetuates the suffering in this world.

I commit myself to spreading the basic common sense that equations that do not consider all life equally, are weapons of murder and mass destruction.

Day 5: Freedom of Choice?

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to have created and allowed a system where Freedom of Choice is treated as if it's the Holy Spirit that must be preserved and respected no matter what

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to have made Freedom of Choice one of the Commandments of the religion of Economics

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not promote and provide policies which are Best for all Life as this would impinge on people’s Freedom of Choice to Abuse

 I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not create and promote policies which clearly describe what is acceptable and what is not within the consideration of what is Best for allLife as this would impinge on people’s Freedom of Choice which I have placed above the value of Life

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to stay away from educating people and clearly writing out policies which define what is acceptable and what is not as I believe that the education process will take too long and not be direct within policies as to not impinge on people’s Freedom of Choice

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to instead of clearly stipulating what would be the best course of action to take within the Best interest of All – to write out policies and implement rules and regulations which provide “incentive” for people to act the way I want them to act – steering them into the direction and choice that I want them to make without actually taking their choice away

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to set out policies, rules and regulations in such a way that if people do not choose what I want them to choose – then they will suffer

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that within creating this scenario/condition – there is no Freedom of Choice at all

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to for instance promote policies and regulation to address population growth in developing countries in a way that increases the hardship of mother by making things more expensive for them and removing benefits such as days of leave and overall making their life harder if they have (more) children

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that hardship as poverty is the very reason why people have more children in the hope that they will live to see another day and provide for the parents when they no longer can – as there is no system in place which ensures life-long support from Birth till Death

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that this hardship can be put to an end by Giving to all Equally

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to play a game of pulling strings where I try to get the right combination of what strings to pull, how hard and in what direction in order to get the result I want

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to have created an intricate and complex system like a tapestry – where I want a particular string to move on the one side of the tapestry and then try to achieve this through pulling lots of strings on the opposite siding—hoping that all the various ripple effects will lead to the desired effect

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not want to give up our current Economic System of Grandeur as we’ve worked so hard and so long to create it and “get it right” that I will do whatever it takes, manipulate the current system and create additional systems on top of the already existent one for the sake of keeping it alive and still getting what I want

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to want to consider any other perspective other than what my system dictates as I’ve already devoted my life to this one and I do not want to go through the trouble of admitting that I as the system was wrong and starting from scratch

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to have made it so difficult for myself within the current system that all I can do is pull strings and hope I hit the right one in order to get the desired result

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not consider the consequences and implications for other beings when pulling my strings

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to see the increasing of hardship on people as acceptable but not allowing Free Choice as unacceptable

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to fight for the freedom to abuse

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to fight for the freedom to have more and be better than others

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that I am at the same time also fighting for people to be less and having less than others

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to only view Freedom of Choice from the side of being a ‘winner’  -- where I will defend freedom of choice because I want to be a winner and not care at all about whoever is the loser – as long as I can win and have more

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to place myself in the shoes of the losers of the Freedom of Choice Game

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that it is always the winners who make the rulers for the losers

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that this is not Freedom AT ALL

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to have been brainwashed into believing that Freedom of Choice is something worth fighting for and that this is what life is all about

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to have been brainwashed into adopting and believing a definition of “freedom” which is so limited in that it only takes into consideration the freedom of making money – which I have translated as being equal to the freedom of living

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that we were never equal from the start – and that we are thus in fact playing a game where some started to play already being a few steps away from the finish line, where some are already midway, where some are just starting – and where some have already been kicked out of the game before it even started – and within that I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to see and realise that Freedom of Choice was and has never been real as none have ever been given equal opportunity

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to apparently fight for Freedom of Choice for everyone – while only a few are actually able to access “choice” through Money

I commit myself to the re-evaluation of our current economic system to identify all its flaws and provide alternative solutions so that we may break the chains of misery for over half the population of the world – so that they may actually live

I commit myself to exposing the Lie of Freedom of Choice – as freedom can only be real when all are free which has thus far never been the case

I commit myself to show to those who stand by Freedom of Choice that their very definition of Free Choice implies limitation as the concept of Freedom of Choice is only used to gain advantage over other people – and thus placing them in a disadvantaged position and limiting their freedom for the sake of expanding one’s own

I commit myself to promote rules, policies and regulations according to the principle of what is Best for All and not some policies which indirectly through a system of “ripple effects” and “incentives” ‘hopefully’ give me what I want

I commit myself to expose the lies and deceit behind the concept of Freedom of Choice in terms of how people’s Freedom of Choice gets manipulated to appear as if one has a choice while they don’t

I commit myself to put an end to the game of winners and losers and establish a world where all are Equals

I commit myself to expose the atrocities being committed where points such as “increasing people’s hardship” are deemed as valid economic policy approaches

I commit myself to the designing and creating of policies within the principle of Do to Another as You would Like to be Done unto – as for sure hardship will then not be considered

I commit myself to reject the definition of Freedom in terms of being able to be more and better than others as this implies allowing people to be less and have less

I commit myself to the redefining Freedom within the principle of what is Best for all

 I commit myself to the establishment of an Equal Money System where all are supported from Birth till Death as this is the only way real Freedom can exist

Day 4: The Logic of Political Corruption in Africa

For context, see the article by Diana Cammack – “The Logic of African Neopatrimonialism: What Role for Donors?” http://www.uio.no/studier/emner/sv/statsvitenskap/STV4347B/v10/Cammack%202007.pdf

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to blame African governments for wasting precious resources through friends-politics where their followers are rewarded through favours.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to judge corrupt governments as bad governments and place the bulk of why their countries cannot find their way out of poverty, on corrupt leaders and officials.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that from an African historic and cultural perspective, neopatrimonialism – where a patron takes care of its clients through sharing ‘his’ wealth – is socially accepted, because a leader is expected to use his/her access to resources to support his/her followers.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that African leaders will do anything to remain in power, including using public resources to award favours to significant and influential individuals of the population in order to retain support – because government positions are the easiest way to attain some degree of wealth in those countries, where, if they don’t remain in power, they are very likely to go back to a life of absolute poverty.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that if I were in the same position, where the only way to escape absolute poverty was to buy support from the population in order to remain in power, I would probably do just that.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to expect that simply by implementing Western institutional models in a country that has not walked the same path as the actual Western countries, the attitudes of the African population would simply adjust and that these same governing models would work in the exact same way in Africa.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to delude myself into thinking that African leaders are capable of concerning themselves with the ‘public good’ when they are in a constant state of fear of loss and where the threat of having to go back to a life of poverty inhibits them from seeing past their individual interests.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that corruption and greed are merely an outflow and manifestation of fear of loss and therefore, if I have any form of fear of loss existent within me, I cannot say that I am better than corrupt African officials and I cannot be trusted more with such power than them.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself of expect of African countries that they undergo political reforms to limit the size of the government in order to eradicate or at least limit corruption opportunities, without realising that corruption is the only thing that allows them to maintains a form of social and political stability in those countries – and that to take away this tool of African leaders means to send the country into internal chaos and conflict.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that if I demand of African countries to reduce the size of their government, it will mean that many government-owned enterprises will be privatised and hundreds of thousands of people will lose their job.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that unless everyone has a secure income, corruption will always exist.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise that rich nations are responsible for the state in which African countries are struggling since they, through exploiting them in colonisation and continuing to take advantage of them through the current economic power-relations, have completely incapacitated them, left them with nothing but crumbs with which to make meets end.

I forgive myself for not accepting and allowing myself to realise the hypocrisy and disgrace in demanding lower-developed countries to open up their markets to the world and extensively limit their government intervention – while Western countries protect their vital industries from cheaper competition with vigour.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to demand of African countries that they focus their efforts on exports to increase the country’s wealth and living standards, while obviously, if all lower-developed countries start increasing their exports of primary goods, the price of primary goods will drop on the world market and any increase of income generated from such exports will be insignificant – leaving on the rich nations better off, who can now buy primary goods for a real good price.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to criticise African countries for utilising corrupt methods for personal interests, without making mention of how the United States has continuously used foreign aid as a strategy to influence the international political scene in order to preserve and protect itself – not realising that the successive shifts in emphasis in terms of providing aid from South Asia to Southeast Asia, to Latin America to the Middle East and back to Southeast Asia, to then go toward Africa and the Persian Gulf, the Caribbean and Central America and after that, the Russian Federation, Bosnia, Ukraine, Asia and the Middle East reflect changes in US strategic, political and economic interests, more than changing evaluations of economic need – using the exact same ‘friends politics’ as corrupt officials and leaders do in order to avert conflict and the undermining of power.

 I commit myself to expose the unequal power relations in the global economy that condemn billions of people to absolute poverty.

I commit myself to investigating the motives of politicians within corrupt behaviour to see and understand the fundamental problems that perpetuate this behaviour in order to correct these fundamental problems in such a way that allows all to live as equals with equal consideration for all.

I commit myself to stop fear of loss within myself and find practical solutions so that none have to live with fear of loss and fear of death – but can instead share themselves and their world unconditionally.

I commit myself to eradicate poverty through the designing and implementing of an Equal Money System where dignified life is the ultimate value.