05 202305 May 2023

Positive Healthcare – A New Concept for the WHO?

“Health is broader than the absence of disease or symptoms. An increasingly central role is played by other aspects, such as resilience, sense of purpose, meaningfulness and self-management” (Machteld Huber, Institute for Positive Health))

Positive health is a concept introduced by Machteld Huber. In her 2014 dissertation, Huber turned the WHO definition of health – ‘a state of complete physical, psychological and social well-being and not just the absence of disease and infirmity’ – on its head. Huber argues that this definition is outdated, because then hardly anyone would be healthy. And that it leads to unnecessary and costly medicalization of care. Alternatively, she introduces the definition: “the ability to adapt and manage oneself in the light of the physical, emotional and social challenges of life”, which forms the basis for the concept of positive health. In this concept, health is no longer seen as the absence or presence of disease, but as the ability of people to cope with (changing) physical, emotional and social life challenges and to have as much control as possible. Health is then no longer strictly the domain of healthcare professionals, but of everyone.
(Critical Blog P. Valentijn / Essenburgh.dotcom)

We were at the University of Maastricht in 2014 when the dissertation was presented by Machteld Huber. It was well explained that we as human beings have the first (and last) responsibility for our health and so for our own healthcare as well! Of course it is our own responsibility as free consumers. And of course nobody else can be responsable for our health!

Therefore it is also understandable that in case of a pandemy people should take care for the safety of each other and keep the necessary distance (if that helps … ). But vaccination for our own health only we ourselves can decide! Consumer freedom and responsibility in the 21st century!

Read more:

World Health Organization WHO
Institute for Positive Health

04 202304 April 2023

Global Money Week: Plan Your Money – Plant Your Future!

We went one step further in our press release indicating that not only planning but also the dialogue with all our producers
every season or at least every year is so important to bring marketing into a mutual process. To give direction to the essence
of consumer governance: Follow Your Money – Create Your World. Because every time we spend money a euro yen or dollar
starts a new round around the world to fulfill its task in connecting production trade and consumption. Daily economic life!

Since 2012 the Global Money Week reached more than 50 million children and young people around the world! Lessons on
schools, visits of (central) banks and financial institutions, workshops, tv talkshows, money museums, etc. Lifelong Learning
begins in school and money is the mirror of our daily life. Whatever we choose to buy or to save. Or to plant for the future that
we want: science and education. For new product developments and new generations of producers!

Our Consumer360Academy is a source for further learning about consumer governance. About the twelve necessities of life
and the seven questions to ask. About the “why-how-what” for every decision to make.

Read more:

• Global Money Week

03 202303 March 2023

The Science Must Go On!

02 202302 Februari 2023

• SOCIAL SCULPTURES (JOSEPH BEUYS)

08 202301 January 2023

Stakeholder Engagement – Towards an Economy of Question and Answer

Since the early years of the 20th century more and more consumers started to proclaim their rights to quality of products and services. During the sixties and the seventies consumers/citizens organized circles around shops, farms, schools, healthcare, transport etc etc. Since the eighties pioneering banks started helping and advising consumers in co-financing innovative sustainable and responsible producers trade and service organizations.

Consumers as “first degree” stakeholders started to develop a regular dialogue towards an economy of question and answer (demand and supply instead of supply and demand). Shareholders and other stakeholders became more and more involved in all the issues about sustainability and responsibility in the economy. Guidelines such as ISO 26000/20400, Sustainable Development Goals SDG’s, Global Reporting Initiative GRI guidelines and all the guarantees and hallmarks in the world (see ISEAL) are now the guidelines in the world economy to “guide” us to the future we want!

Read more:

• SUPPLY AND DEMAND OF A PIZZA (2 MIN)
• STAKEHOLDERENGAGEMENT – FROM PROFIT TO VALUE (DUTCH)

12 202212 December 2022

Consumers international – The  future we want

Consumers International CI is the platform for the consumer organizations of all 220 countries worldwide. Founded in The Hague/Netherlands in 1960 as the International Organization of Consumer Unions IOCU represented by all the consumer organizations worldwide. (Although only 120 out of the 220 countries have national consumer unions so far).

One way or another representing all 8.000.000.001 consumers worldwide, starting points of all the money going around every day when people make their decisions to buy (or not to buy), to save and lend or to subsidise. From supply and demand towards an economy of responsible questions and sustainable answers!

Development of conciousness, dialogue consumers-producers and even crowdfunding new initiatives and co-financing world trade and production with small but basic amounts of money connecting the world of the division of labour, being consumers AND producers in all our different roles every day.

The COP27 conference last month in Egypt shows the steps to go from promises to sustainable actions. As consumers we can ask the right questions so that producers can work on the best possible solutions!

The Amsterdam University Press published this month the bestseller-to-be “Economy Studies – A Guide to Rethinking Economics Education” by Sam de Muijnck and Joris Tieleman. Result of ten years worldwide discussions about Rethinking Economics by student groups and other people working in the academic world. Hundreds of pages about the renewal of economic studies. For all types of schools, for universities and for consumer education as well. The book can be downloaded for free (see below).

Read more:

• Consumers International
• COP 27 Conference Egypt / Welcome Speech
• Economy Studies – A Guide to Rethinking Economics Education (PDF) (bestseller! free download!)

11 202211 November 2022

We The People – Civil Society ThinkTanks

Already more than 500 civil consultations worldwide have been working together with governments in researching and discussing 500 issues of great importance according to the SDG’s in progress! Researcher and journalist Eva Rovers wrote a great little book about this new phenomenon of the 21st century! How groups of 150 citizens can be invited as co-thinkers for the biggest issues to be decided in laws and politics. We the People is becoming more and more practice on the road to the consumer-producer dialogue: in this case citizens-politicians dialogue.

Read more:

• Citizens Consultation (Example: Flyer The Hague, Netherland)
• Citizens Consultation (Advisory Bureau Burgerberaad)

10 202210 October 2022

Big Picture and Detail – Communication in the 21st Century

Communication is nothing more than communication. But no less either! If we oversee the whole world of communication it is only about the ways of transporting. Talking and writing, publishing and conferencing, emails, chats and webinars, searching, researching and last but not least investigating.

And that brings us to science and research, to education and even traveling for finding new information and new discoveries. Even beyond the borders of natural sciences only!

Because behind all visible worlds there are the ideas, the plans, the strategies and all other “building principles”. Intensified observing and intensified thinking through about all the phenomenons can give the same or even better insights than training higher insights of “clairevoyance” via meditation alone. And is much easier to communicate with everyone else!

In other words: science is about the big picture and the details, and communication is mostly about details, and only sometimes about the big picture. But in the end it is always about insight and understanding as a basis for better arguments to take better decisions in our daily life, in organizations and in the world as a whole.

Thanks to the internet we can communicate with almost everyone worldwide. And about all kinds of issues thanks to Google and Wikipedia. And think about everything during all the presentations of TEDx.

And based on better structures for discussion such as the Sustainable Development Goals, international agreements and rules such as the Global Reporting Initiative GRI guidelines. And last but not least consumer-producer dialogue, civic councils and free press in general.

Read more:

• Rethink the Internet / Bloomberg Interview Tim Berners Lee, inventor of the WorldWideWeb. At the NextWeb Conference in Amsterdam May/June 2022 (23 min)
• Natural Sciences and its Bounderies (two lectures by Rudolf Steiner 2/3 October 1920)
• Consumer360 as logo and platform for communication of insights and experiences.

09 202209 September 2022

Go / No Go in the 21st Century: Travel and Transport

Electric and hydrogen based on solar or wind are the new fuels for travel and transport. Sharing cars scooters and e-bikes the new basis for lowering commodities in general. Working from home as the ultimate form of sustainability in travel and transport. But Buy Nothing Day could be recognised as the ultimate wake-up call for consideration when we decide every day about to buy or not to buy! Because not only energy and commodities are worth to think about but also the labour of our fellow consumers. What do we REALLY need? The three questions about why how and what are relevant in all our everyday decisions as consumers. That is “stewardship” or in other words: consumer governance!

But also thinking the other way around is important, even more important! What do we need for our personal welfare and development not material but social and spiritual? That is the economy of services and the art of living itself!

Read more:

• Buy Nothing Day

08 202208 August 2022

Money Money Money – Yesterday Today Tomorrow

Financing yesterday, today or tomorrow. Buying the past (products made), facilitating today (saving and investing vice versa) and/or financing the future (education research and design).

Money was invented to make barter and trade easier to handle in place and time. First we used shells and salt, later on gold, coins or paper money. Today we use the internet as our worldwide bookkeeping system for changing products and services, for saving and investing, and for financing the future of new products and producers.

Most interesting developments in the last few years is the rise of local currencies, crypto currencies and last but not least rethinking about old and new currencies made for a world economy seen as a living process, like nature. Representing more as a real mirror of reality, of production AND use or consumption as an ongoing circular process. The thoughts of Sylvio Gesell and the experiences in Worgl / Austria in 1932 gave an optimistic experience to use for further research as one possible option as the IMF suggests on their website.

For us consumers it can trigger our own thoughts about spending our money. Buying, saving or financing the future? Spending some of our money to finance the future, a better world for the next generation (and for ourselves when we return here for a following life on earth). Life(s)Long Learning!

Read more:

• True Price Shops / True Income (Paying the past)
• GABV Banking group (Investing in today)
• Education and research (financing the future)
• Living Currencies / Worgl and more (IMF)

07 202207 July 2022

Organic architecture in the 21st century

The iconic building of organic architecture in Amsterdam will be transformed into a small city of appartments, shops, restaurants and exposition areas. The former head office of the ING Bank is still a marvellous example for the architecture of the 21st century and is visited by many people through the years since 1985 when it was built.

In the transition from the cubic architecture of the last century – image of (dead) matter and materialism – organic architecture is the art of building structures based on the mathematics of the living nature.

Projective geometry is allround geometry and so it is the basis of all forming processes in the universe between point and infinity (see also our news article of April 2022). Not only in sculptures of cristal forms but also in the forming principles in the living nature of flora and fauna. And even so in the developing of the human being, organizations and the world as a whole!

We can see the transformation of architecture all around us in the world. Beginning with building structures of cubic buildings in an ever more “dancing” relationship with each other, forming highly interesting new living spaces and working areas! It shows us the transformation from the materialistic architecture towards the living architecture!

As architecture is not only a building principle in stone but also influencing the people who are living or working there or travelling and sightseeing, it also is a kind of mirror which can help us to work towards another world, towards the future we want. For instance: Triodos Bank for sustainable financing started with the help of people working at ING Bank. And Consumer360Academy has its roots in both banking institutions, connecting old and new principles of marketing and consumer-producer dialogue!

Read more:

• Organic Architecture / Living Architecture (A Travelling Exhibition)

06 202206 June 2022

SDG 12 – Responsible Consumption and Production

More and more producers are now stepping into the future we want! Even the biggest companies (such as Shell and Tata Steel in the Netherlands) are now working constructively on sustainability to help in reaching responsible production and consumption. Dialogue and partnerships are the proven toolkits for the future!

During the World Economic Forum WEF in Davos many decisions were made to solve the climate crisis before 2030/2050 and solve all the problems in the world according to the Sustainable Development Goals. China will plant 70 billion trees for instance! But basis for the future of the world is of course the impact we can all make as stakeholders!

Read more:

• Shell Oil
• TATA Steel
• WEF 2022 / The Road Ahead

05 202205 May 2022

World Health Day: Our Planet Our Health

Getting ill getting better is a very old statement. And that is indeed the why-how-what of every illness. Be it a human being, an organization, a country or the whole world. Only when we understand illness as an opportunity for our personal or even social development we can work in the right direction. With medicare as an assistant to the individual or the board of managers. Good food, good organizing and good work for sustainability are the way forwards for a healthy life and a healthy planet.

Yes we experienced different diseases already in the 21st century. Be it Corona, Financial Crisis or International Fighting or Trade Wars. Looking backwards we can always recognise (in most cases) that we got better, better than before. And that is always the proof in the pudding! If we analyse the history well.

Like a strong man lifting heavy weights chooses heavier weights every next week to get stronger, so do we in our lifetime and so does the world as a whole!

Read more:

• United Nations WHO / World Health Day (April 7)

03 202204 April 2022

Life(s)Long Learning – Projective Geometry as a Voyage of Discovery

From the beginning of aviation pilots always wanted to go higher faster and further. Also learning, research and travel are reaching for new horizons. And even all our thoughts about cooking and taste, architecture and industrial design are a daily voyage towards the un-known. Life(s)Long Learning is a never ending voyage of discovery!

But learning can also be done in a structured way which is called “research”. Working from specific questions, specified goals and structured ways of reasoning and dialogue. But one way or the other: we want to know the truth and noting but the truth about anything and everything.

The biggest discoveries are made today when not looking to the natural science alone which is about the natural (read: physical) world alone. Especially the spiritual sciences are becoming more and more interesting as a road to understand the basics of the whole universe we are living in. The same way we can recognise that there is a board of directors and an organizational structure behind the (natural / physical) structures of factories and roads, we can discover the worlds behind social and individual processes and their options for learning and developing.

The easiest way towards understanding the coherence between natural sciences and spiritual sciences is mathematics, especially geometry as a picture and even more specific the projective geometry. It was Rudolf Steiner who discovered this connection between inner and outer worlds, point and periphery, details and overview. It was Olive Whicher who gave the final entrance towards these insights in her book Projective Geometry. Because she used art as a tool geometry became the road for the voyage of discovery!

She presented the book during a seminar in Switzerland in 1972. We can use projective geometry in many ways to explain organization structures, the world of christals plants and animals, all kinds of developments in space and time, and all kinds of relations between matter and mind. Even about making visible developments of the individual (consumer) and mankind as a whole.

Read more:

• Olive Whicher: Projective Geometry – Creative Polarities in Space and Time

12 202203 March 2022

Sustainable Development Goals – Another World in the Making!

Sustainable Development Goals are now THE real catalyzers for change! Everybode knows them, everybody is talking about them, and everybody and every organization is now working on solutions one way or another. New ways of farming and food, energy and all kinds of commodities, and working on cleaning the seas and reforestation of what has been exploited.

The Club of Rome (1972) the Brundtland Report (1987) and the Earth Charter (2000) were the great initiators. Buy Nothing Day (1992), Rethinking Economics (1992), and Fridays for Futures (Greta Thunberg 2018) were the great promotors in the last few years. And the whole world is now aware of the urgency about climate change, sustainability and all other issues about equality, responsibility and development in general.

And the first results are becoming more and more visible! Electric transport and travel, 3D efficient organic and biodynamic farming, self-responsible healthcare, quality education and life(s)long learning, More equality for all people and a more reasonable income for everyone. Better ways of production including a much better longterm profit for everyone and every organization! The 21st century has really started towards mature and responsible lifestyles.

But there has to be done more than the SDG’s alone! The SDG’s are 17 goals together, but only about six of the twelve necessities of life. The SDG’s are mostly about sustainability of the natural world and about equality among people when it is about income, hunger and healthcare. But much more has to be developed than the SDG’s alone! The way we think about science itself as a holistic issue more than natural sciences alone, The way we think about democracy more than gender equality alone. And so the way we think about religion philosophy of living and thinking about the arts as basic principles of creating and co-creating for everyone. For stewardship of the planet and the cosmos around us (not to be overcrowded by traffic and litter … ).

Therefore we published our first video about the twelve necessities of life to complete the complete horizon of information which we need as consumers (and as producers). Because a video “reads” so much faster than pages in a book or on a website. This was our press release which we send to the press and many other organizations on the 12th of February:

Newstip: Premiere YouTube Video (11 min)

An overview of all information consumers need for their daily decision making.
A summary of the complete website of Consumer360Academy in a nutshell.

WorldWideWeb360 Consumer Information (YouTube 11 min.)

Discover the world of the consumer!
Read more: www.consumer360.org

Enjoy reading!

Read more:

• WorldWideWeb360 Consumer Information (YouTube 11 min.)

12 202202 February 2022

Work in Progress – Another World Under Construction

Many papers and magazins are reporting about the new generation which is willing to take action to change the world into sustainability and responsibility, transparency and equality. Willing to take the lead of their own future!

Although worldwide most noses are pointing into the same direction it is not easy to change the world in one day! But after so many years of research, dialogue and experiences we have to make up our minds and take decisions.

What about a to-do list for consumers? That is us! Taking economical decisions every day choosing what we need. Making our decisions mostly as a routine. But when making choices about to change something we always have to read and talk a lot, to calculate and/or think about moral issues, to doubt again and again before taking our final decisions.

For exchange knowledge and experience there are many different “circles” of people talking about many different issues. Groups of consumers, citizens or co-creators (depending on the role one is acting) are discussing about issues of common interest. Consumers around a shop, people around a center for medicare, parents around the school of their children, citizens around politicians, or co-creators around an academy for the arts or a circle of people around a theatre or museum. According to the research 1980-1987 on which this website is built we can recognize twelve types of “consumer circles” in which we are in dialogue with each other but especially with our “producer”.

But to exchange knowledge and experiences about our role of consumer as a consumer we need a thirteenth circle as a platform for dialogue. To talk not about our relation to the world around us but to the world within us! In opposition with the consumer circles and consumer unions in the outer world we have to look to the inner world of our role of consumer. And not only to home economics which is in fact about the family life but to our own role in the world as a consumer. And not only talking about sustainability but about everything, about all twelve necessities of life.

That is what this website is all about as a basis for home economics and for consumer circles as well. Knowing all about who I am, what I feel atracted to, and what I really need to have to live my life is the starting point for all the other dialogues.

To start the “inner circle” which we are ourselves, we can study the content of this website as a basis for our own thoughts, our own arguments, our own decisions. Then only then we are also 100% prepared for all other dialogues. Changing the world is starting from ourselves, from our own insights, motivation, and true needs (plus more for fun).

Read more:

• Consumer360Experience LifeLongLearning / Toolkit

 10 202201 January 2022

WorldWideWeb360 – Consumer Governance is Becoming Mainstream.

Now we have passed the 21st year in the 21st century we might call ourselves adults at last! After 3×7 years of upgrading our consumer knowledge, struggling with all kinds of arguments, and last but not least trying out all kinds of organizing new ways of sustainable and responsible lifestyles. And where awareness is the basis of it all and by definition irreversible, education is still life(s)long learning, and action always trial and error. The WorldWideWeb360 of cultural social and economical organizations is based on the 12 necessities of life and the 7 aspects of dialogue between consumers and production / services / advisors. It gives us the “overview” and shows the big picture.

Looking back

Most important what happened this year was the international conference in Berlin organized by UNESCO and Education International where finally was decided that sustainable and responsible lifestyles will be integrated in every curriculum of every school worldwide! Like a follow up the COP 26 Conference in Glasgow resulted in the first steps of implementing the answers on the questions of the next generation. Talking in the language of Greta Thunberg: from bla bla bla to do do do! The road ahead will not be easy but it feels very professional now!

Looking forward

The year 2022 will hopefully bring many new initiatives and many breakthroughs in all kinds of organizations. Climate cannot wait anymore and so the case of inequality worldwide. Sustainability in nature, but also healthier and more tasteful food are the best options to work for. Because healthy food is the basis for healthy thinking to build a healthy future. And so the tendencies toward true prices and true incomes. Maturity means think, argue and act in a healthy way. Real interest, real empathy, and real vigor are the tools!

08 202112 December 2021

From Euro to Global? – 30 years experience with one coin in many countries

In the success of the Euro we can recognize the winning idea of John Maynard Keynes over Dexter White. The Euro as testcase for the Bancor has done very well. BECAUSE it was a coin for all member countries while the Dollar was not! From Bretton Woods to the Maastricht Treaty to Gobalization in the 21st Century?

When all people pay with the same coin then only then true prices will become visible! And true prices are true incomes in the end. Slogans like fair trade and living income will not be necessary anymore by then.

Paying with “Globals” can make the world economy 100% transparent showing the reality of dividing the labour economically and the reality of dividing the incomes legally.

Working with Bancor or Global as a global currency not only makes the world economy transparant but is also the most efficient indicator for dividing labour worldwide. Serving best possible prices for the consumer!

Read more:

• Celebrating 30 Years Maastricht Treaty

06 202111 November 2021

COP 26 Climate Conference in Glasgow – Stepping Into The 21st Century.

The great conference about climate change took place in Glasgow, Scotland. While the first conference in Rio de Janeiro 1992 was about all possible information. In 2001 the Millennium Goals were the first results of a worldwide dialogue. And 2015 the UN Sustainable Development Goals presented us all world problems on a single “dashboard”! The COP26 conference on climate change was now the “hottest” item of all items.

Read more:

• COP26 Climate Conference
• IPCC Report on Climate Change

11 202110 October 2021

Best Practices for Shaping the Future

In 1919 Rudolf Steiner published the Essence of the Social Question after more than thirty years of research and try-outs. It already gave most interesting best practices for shaping the future which we can use today! Even now hundred years later the experience of biodynamic agriculture, waldorf education and anthroposophic health care show us how a deeper insight in the nature around us give us the tools for better understanding of how nature works.

But the Social Question is more complex than nature and more difficult to work on. Because we have to learn ourselves how society works and we ourselves are of course the ultimate players on the worldstage! But all kinds of questions about economy, human rights and cultural development are high on the agenda nowadays. So knowledge of the basic laws in the social sciences can be of great help!

Because the human being him/herself is in the centre of the universe it is the best and EASIEST way to look around and see all the problems, opportunities and possible solutions in an overview! As consumer, citizen and co-creator we are the ones who have all the (daily) needs, ask the questions (marketing), receive the answers (products and services), and pay for it in the end. That’s why we can call it “consumer governance”.

Read more:

• Rudolf Steiner: The Threefold Social Order (1919)
• Martin Large and Steve Briault: Free Equal and Mutual – Rebalancing Society (2003)

11 202109 September 2021

The Great Reset – From Corporate Governance to Consumer Governance

The Great Reset is the bestselling book written by Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum. It gives us an outlook into a future where corporate and government governance will try to continue their leadership roles which they had in the centuries up till now. But in the 21st century it will be more and more the consumer/citizen/co-creator who will take over the steering wheel of the future we want. By asking better questions for better answers (products and services). By all forms for dialogue between consumers and producers. And by co-financing the companies they are connecting with by prepay, financing product-stocks, or even financial stocks. Most of the 7.000.000.001 consumers still have some homework to do! Not only working toward a so-called “stakeholder capitalism” but towards mature, sustainable and responsible lifestyles!

Read more:

• The Great Reset (Klaus Schwab / World Economic Forum)
• Consumers International (Coming Together for Change)
• Triodos Bank for People who Want to Change
• Consumer360Academy (Overview) (PDF)

04 202108 August 2021

University for Home Economics and Global Citizenship Education

June 19 was the day of the new National Centre of Excellence for Home Economics in Sligo, Ireland. Now the largest university for home economics, sustainable and responsible lifestyles and global citizenship education. St Angela’s University College has a long history in the development of home economics and education on sustainability and responsibility. Working together with the University in Hamar Norway and the Partnership for Education and Research on Responsible Living PERL (including Consumer360Academy), the International Federation for Home Economics IFHE, The Earth Charter, and UNESCO. And a worldwide network of teachers, teacher trainers and researchers.

The IFHE announced that the next international conference after Atlanta USA (2022) will be organized in Sligo in 2024. The university with 1600 students will then meet 1200 teachers, teacher trainers and researchers from all over the world. To talk about consumer governance “from fork to farm”!

Read more:

• St Angela’s College for Home Economics (Sligo Ireland)

03 202107 July 2021

Dante Alighieri 700 – From Problems to Solutions (Divina Comedia)

Dante Alighieri died 1321 September 14 as the greatest writer of all times. His masterpiece of writing the Divina Comedia is the story about travelling through hell and purgatory towards paradise. From problems through crisis management towards the celebration of solutions. The road we walk through life from time to time during our lifetime(s) biography. A story which is described in many books throughout the centuries before and beyond Dante. And even described more in detail in all kinds of religious and esoteric scriptures.

We can recognise these things when looking back on our own biography, on the ups and downs we experienced in life. Development is only possible by trial and error of course. And even on an ever higher level, in the same way a weightlifter taking heavier weights each time trying to become stronger. So this can also be seen as the big picture for everyone of us, for all organizations, and for the world as a whole! As in China the same character is used for crisis and for chance, it is about our own character of course and the possibilities for change!

Read more:

• Dante 700 (Celebrations in Florence and Tuscany, Italy)

04 202106 June 2021

Life(s)Long Learning Starts in School – UN SDG4 World Congress in Berlin

UNESCO and Education International organised the first international congress about introduction of consumer education in school curricula. Because everyone of us is co-creator, citizen and consumer as well, learning starts already in early childhood with playing shop and shopping and thinking about to buy or not to buy, saving and investing. Education International is the organisation of all 32 million teachers worldwide and UN SDG4 is about quality education for all.

Interesting to remember is that President John F Kennedy was the one who pronounced the Consumer Rights in 1962 March 15 which is since then Consumer Rights Day. A year later in Berlin he gave the inspiring speech about the fight for freedom at the Berlin Wall with the empathic words “Ich bin ein Berliner” (I am a Berliner) to trigger people to fight for freedom and responsibility. As consumers living in the 21st century we now have to learn to say “I am a consumer” and learn to manage our freedom and responsibility as an ongoing lifelong learning process, developing in accordance with all other developments in the world.

The conference in Berlin was about consumer freedom, consumer rights and consumer reponsibility. About all aspects of consumer governance to be implemented in all school curricula. To help the next generation(s) becoming world leaders in responsible production and consumption! To get all the tools for working on the future they want.

Read more:

• UNESCO World Conference on Education for Sustainable Development

06 202105 May 2021

3D Farming Fast Forward – Efficient Organic Dynamic

Worldwide more and more supermarkets are expanding their product range with more organic food. Because more and more consumers are becoming interested in healthy food and healthy lifestyles, Albert Heijn (AH XXL), in the Netherlands, ALDI in Germany, Walmart in the USA and even more and more supermarkets in China are presenting wider product ranges than ever before! The UN Sustainable Development Goal SDG12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) in progress! Note well that responsible consumption is mentioned first. That means once and for all that we are living now in an economy of question and answer, the essence of demand and supply!

Basic principle of all questions about food and agriculture is of course the human being him/herself. The why how and what questions are: why am I living at all? How do I want to live this life, what do I need for my lifestyle? According to food the answers are to be found in quality quantity and price, the basic principles of all consumer-producer dialogue of trade. Especially quality is the most important question of the 21st century!

Looking to conventional, organic and biodynamic agriculture we can understand the differences in an earth- nature- or/and cosmic orientation. Which can also been seen as a learning process from materialism to holism. But also a path of integrating the three dimensions towards an efficient-organic-dynamic agriculture. Looking to the earth the environment and to the sun and the moon AND the planets around us. Shall we call it 3D agriculture? Or price-quantity-quality oriented agriculture?

To substantiate all those questions more and more consumers are even interested to co-finance shops and farms and especially the goods for the next month (stock in the shop) as a kind of subscription. We introduced that kind of financing already in 1980 to give the bank credits of Triodos Bank a sustainable basis, making consumer-questions visible and reliable.

Read more:

• Demeter (Hallmark of the World Federation for BioDynamic Farming)

08 202104 April 2021

Consumer Producer Dialogue – Towards an Economy of Question and Answer

Last month worldwide there were many conferences about consumer-producer dialogue! The 21st century of consumer governance began! Making an economy of question and answer into a reality of daily dialogue! Not only in politics (Bernie Sanders USA or Jesse Klaver in the Netherlands) but also about food and housing (in Germany the Verbraucherzentrale of Nordrhein Westfalen), about money during the Global Money Week (which is organized by the OECD), the UNESCO conference in Berlin together with Education International about integration of Sustainable Development Goals in school curricula). Consumers International is inviting all parties to come together for working on change. Worldwide more and more organizations, politicians and companies are working towards dialogue, towards a future we want but have to create it too! From small local initiatives to big organizations and even worldwide! A very very interesting start of the 21st year of the 21st century!

In 2011 we already wrote about the way we saw the modern consumer coming into more action. But now we can see more specifically that “maturity” is not a moment but a process! Nevertheless it is interesting to look back for a moment …..

“We are living in the middle of an interesting time! Worldwide the post-war generation is going to retire. Especially the students that protested for a better world in the sixties and have done their jobs in business, politics or culture have now a lot of time to get creative on another level! Especially ceo’s, politicians or the chairman of some cultural or scientific organization who have a lot of experience are now free to speak about their real thoughts about society. And because of modern social media more eager then ever to join the problem-solving in the 21st century!

But even more interesting is that almost everybody is going into a higher gear of activism! Not only the movements of the Arab Spring or the Occupy (together with Adbusters Magazine of Kalle Lasn who also started the Buy Nothing Day years ago), but also many people as members or not-members of organizations in public transport, medicare, food, education, politics, housing etc. etc. are more and more talking and acting towards more sustainability and responsibility!

We have entered the 21st century of maturity where the human being is starting managing his or her own life and all kinds of relations in society together with other people now also in all kinds of economical/financial, political and cultural issues. As consumers, citizens or cultural creatives we are more active in dialogue and decision making including the responsibility of what our money is doing in the world. Towards an economy of question and answer where we are learning every day to ask better questions to get better answers (sustainable products and client-oriented services)”.

March 15 was again Consumer Rights Day since President John F Kennedy proclaimed the first consumer rights bill in 1962: the right to safety, the right to be informed, the right to choose, and the right to be heard. Today there are even more rights including the right of consumer education.

Read more:

• About Us / Annual Reports (40 Years Consumer Governance in Progress)

02 202103 March 2021

Everyone is an Artist – Joseph Beuys 100

Worldwide expositions on Joseph Beuys are now extra remarkable in a time of crises and new developments! Beuys worked lifelong on all issues about creativity of the human being, about creative thinking and arguing, and about creative organizations. Social Arts as the highest form of art itself! Especially the exposition in Barcelona Spain (26/2 – 23/5) is highly interesting already because of the title: Radical Teaching, Direct Democracy, Social Sculptures. To learn about Beuys, his thoughts and his sculptures and works of art is far from easy but more than worth trying! To express non-materialistic issues in materialistic compositions is art on the highest level.

Understanding globalization, consumer-producer relations, processing from farm to fork and the essence of (consumer)education, communication and governance are difficult to explain too when we want to express all the relations between people, materials and processes, between trade and transport, and consumption in the end. Shelley Sacks from Oxford University for instance worked with Beuys and made an expression made of 10.000 bananas to show the world connections between farmers in America and consumers worldwide. Art can be more impressing than any other explanation of economic, social and cultural relations between people. About consumer governance, government governance and corporate governance. Not the Art of War (Sun Tzu) of modern capitalist economies but the Art of Association and Cooperation between consumers and producers, trade, banking and money. Art as a basic tool for consumer governance and financial literacy. Basis for true prices and true incomes. Basis for sustainability and responsible lifestyles! Basis for consumer education!

Read more:

• Joseph Beuys 100 Expo in Barcelona, Spain (26/2 – 23/5)

03 202102 February 2021

Consumer-Citizen-Creator: Body Soul and Mind of Society

In the 21st century we had a turbulent start with terrorism, financial crisis and now a pandemic coming to an end. But now we are really starting “maturity” in the way it was meant to! We are consumer citizen and creator. Creating new ideas and plans for bottom-up initiatives, finding other people and arguments around us, starting millions of new organizations. Thinking Talking Tasking is over and over again a three-steps process or inward spiraling process. From the infinity of ideas via the discussions with the future public or circle of clients towards the implementation of a project. Including the financing! And not to forget the Why How and What questions as we learned from Simon Sinek (TEDx). Looking forward through the eyes of a Donut as Kate Raworth (TEDx) presented for recognizing enough income for a living and not too much consumption for helping the earth to survive. And even all kinds of organizations worldwide are now promoting change for a future we really want! United Nations, Consumers International and many others.

In 1919 just after the disastrous First World War it was Rudolf Steiner (first lectures about biodynamic agriculture, free waldorf education and modern visions on society and even finance and banking) who discussed with managers and politicians in Germany and Europe how to work towards a better future could be realistic IF the basic principals of the human being would be recognized. Head heart and hands are the expression of thinking feeling and willing. In organizations to be recognized in management organization and production. In society in science, politics and economy. The first has to do with personal freedom, the second with equality amongst people, the third with working together with other people. Liberte Egalite Fraternite. In english: Freedom Equality and Brotherhood (working together in a world of division of labour).

Most problems in the world can be found where these principles are not respected. Freedom is the essence of science education and communication. Not the essence of economy. Equality is the basis for law and order, the relations between people, Or international relations between countries. Equality does not help people to express their own thoughts and arguments. Brotherhood is essential in worldeconomy to work most efficient. Brotherhood is not meant to connect economics with politics or even education. Of course these three areas have to work WITH each other but not in each other.! Then only then we can see a society which works in the most optimal way!

Most interesting is that more and more people are going to recognize these basic principles. Steiner already said so in 1919: if people do not want to hear the idea of threefoldness they will learn it by themselves – the hard way. That is what we see today and it is ok! Experience is the best way to learn how things work! That is maturity! That is do-it-yourself. That is the 21st century! That is creating the future we want! The great problems of the last fourty years were only material for exercising and getting wiser and stronger!

Read more:

• Rudolf Steiner – The Threefold Social Order (free download)

05 202101 January 2021

Maturity – The 21st Century and the Corona Crisis

A consumer vision on corona as phenomenon and image of the actual worldcrisis. Especially as an issue of development of humankind and the individual human being.

See the sun behind the moon during a solar eclipse – that is what is named the corona. The corona is the ring of light surrounding and beaming over the disc of the dark black moon. Blackening the sky and the sun the moon now represents death and materialism.

It gives not only a marvellous picture of the world of light behind, above and around the world of matter. Sunlight represents insight, the science of everything. Mind over matter! Because those who have the highest (read: widest) overview can understand mind AND matter, spiritual and material sciences and their relationship between ideas and realities.

For instance: behind a great factory we can see the ideas of its founder, the planning and design, all the organizational principles and planboards, talkings and reportings.
But only in the end of the process the physical buildings, working people and final products and services. Including the bookkeeping. In other words: Money is realized mind!

The same connection between mind and matter can we see when meeting a crisis or illness in our personal life or within an organization. Mostly occurring in the well-known 7-years rhythms connected to the planets (which represent motion and time versus the order of space represented by the fixed 12-zodiac). We can recognize those rhythms in our own biography too.

Illness, bankruptcy, being fired or getting an accident or even wartime and being a fugitive. In many great stories written by people who had those crises in extreme forms can learn us to understand the why, the how and the what of a crisis. Why me? What have I done wrong that triggered my situation? Or what issues of a former life do I have to repair? How can I understand it and find the arguments and the roads towards a solution? And what can I see as the result after the crisis, being the next phase in my biography? Only months or years later we can find the answers on these questions and understand.

Understand that we really can appreciate a crisis as a growing period towards a higher level of being ourselves. Like the chinese sign for crisis is also the sign for change and opportunity. Becoming better instead of the old person that we were before. Becoming the one we are in the deepest sense! As a person, an organisation or even humanity as a whole.

The so-called corona crisis 2020-2021 could well be THE process of dying and resurrection of mankind into the first century of maturity! More than ever people want to know everything, find all the arguments, and take the best possible decisions now! The last 20 centuries are now history. The centuries of religions, politics and marketing, pharao’s/priests and kings and marketing managers who were the managers of daily life in a broader sense. But today every human being is his/her own manager, has his/her own responsibility! And all kinds of consumer organizations are now the platforms for all our questions and dialogue with producers of all kinds: production of goods, services, politics or ngo’s for all other issues.
Towards an economy of real questions and real answers instead of supply and demand only.

Responsibility for our own health and fitness, choices of real good food, choices of social responsibility, democracy and human aid when necessary. Responsible lifestyles and relationships, and sustainable organizations. And last but not least: what to buy or not to buy, to save or to lend, to give or to receive.

Money is the mirror of all our decisions, the mirror of who we are and want to be! Yesterday, today and planning tomorrow. Corona time is an opportunity for reflection and meditation, of planning and organizing.

Peter Daub
20201212

PS1

During a solar eclipse one can experience two different feelings. The first period of darkening it is getting more and more quiet in nature. All the birds stop their talking. Even a chilling feeling of death surrounds us! After the corona experience (watched through dark glasses) the world is real changing! Birds are starting singing in the most beautiful ritms! We ourselves experience that life is really coming back in our hearts and lungs! A new life has begun!

PS2

December 21 is the great conjunction between Saturn and Jupiter (21 years after the last one). It looks like a “handover” of the outer planet with the “overview” to the planet of “management”. As if the Great Creator hands over the management of the future to the human being, the citizen, the consumer, the cultural creative! Maturity has become reality!

Michelangelo: God creates mankind

11 202012 December 2020

Ralph Nader – Looking Back – and Forward on Consumer Advocacy and Social Change

Ralph Nader the wellknown consumer advocate who wrote the book Unsafe at Any Speed. It was published November 30, 1965. It was Ralph’s first book. And it was the book that launched the modern consumer movement. Just before the worldwide student revoltes. March this year he gave a highly inspiring TEDx speech for all of us and the future we all want. Looking back to what happened in the last 40-60 years in the world economy and how the consumers/citizens worldwide were wakening up to prepare for the 21st century. Talking about all the crises in which we are now, struggling to find and create human and real mature solutions and institutions for the future. And forward on how the future we want could look and how we could work to achieve our own personal goals including the Sustainable Development Goals.

Nader was also a frontrunner being one of the founding fathers of the Green Party in the USA and even going for president more than once! He studied law at Harvard and Princeton, is now 86 and still going strong! He fought for us against the unlawful aspects of many big companies and now helping the debate for a realistic democracy in the US and worldwide. But especially to be a frontrunner and example of how consumers/citizens could and should be interested, informed, enthousiast and active themselves in the 21st century and beyond! To become rebels with a cause every time when necessary!

Realistic thinking about the economy and the world as a whole has its starting point in our own life. As human beings we are cultural creatives, citizens and consumers. Creative in education and development, citizens in discussions about laws and rules to coordinate the world between each other, and consumers in the discussion with trade and production in order to get the “stuff” we need. Maturity in the 21st century has a name: consumer governance. Period.

Read more:

• TED Talk, March 2020 (18 min)
• Ralph Nader (website)

03 202011 November 2020

Consumer360Academy For Consumer Education – 40 Years of Catalizing Change

Consumer360Academy is still a very small organization but working as a catalyst towards many greater organizations working on consumer education one way or another. Although an advisor or catalyzer never knows what his impact is, he can become enthousiast every time when an organization goes in a more positive direction. Especially when that organization survived a crisis in which the adviser was asked for assistance by co-thinking.

Consumer360Academy has its roots in 1980 when its founder Peter Daub (then working at Triodos Bank) started his research on what a consumer would need for making decisions about to buy or not to buy. Which information, which arguments are needed to make the best possible decisions in everyday shopping and financial decisions? The answer is as simpel as it is. All decisions are based on 12x7x3 aspects, 12 necessities of life x 7 aspects of trade x 3 directions in development (past present future). This organizational structure is not only basis for consumers but also for all other organizations in production, trade, banking, politics, ngo’s and society as a whole as well. So daily planners and moneymanagent agenda’s can be one piece of paper! The rest of the website is information for lifelong learning.

The book Consumer Freedom and Responsibility written in 1998 was the result of this research and the start of the Free Consumers Association in 2001, later given the english name Consumer360Academy in 2004 with the start of the website. Last September now also connected to Economists4Future and Fridays4Future, the worldwide initiative of Nobel Prize winner Greta Thunberg. The (sub)title Consumers4Future is meant to give a name to every consumer worldwide who chooses for a sustainable and responsible lifestyle to help build the best possible future for him/herself and for the next generation!

November 11 the Library and Archive will start to be accessible for researchers on consumer history. The newspage of the website in itself is already a comprehensive archive of the last 40 years of history about consumer information, consumer initiatives and organizations, and consumer education. It is THE most simple Toolkit for every consumer to organize his/her daily life including all financial data in the MoneyManager360.

Consumer360Academy has worked together with many organizations worldwide and will continue to do so. Most important organizations for consumer education are the International Federation for Home Economics IFHE, the Partnership for Education and Research on Responsible Lifestyles PERL, and the UN SDG Partnership Exchange.

Read more:

• Consumer360Academy / About us

08 202010 October 2020

Triodos Bank 40 Years – Pioneers In Sustainable And Responsible Banking

Triodos Bank is one of the first banks that was founded to finance pioneers for a better world. Pioneers such as Demeter biodynamic farmers, Waldorf schools for free education, Anthroposophical healthcare, art, sustainable buildings and energy and all other kinds of innovative initiatives worldwide. Especially projects and organizations where all stakeholders are involved INCLUDING the financing by prepayment, lending or subsidising. For instance by prepayment of food and nutricion for the next month which is in fact the clients own part of the stock ready-to-buy. Or co-financing on the background by giving a guarantee that money will be paid in case of problem situations, assistance in continuation or phasing out if necessary. Crowdfunding avant la lettre! For consumers in the 21st century! Triodos Bank was also the birthplace for what is now called Consumer360Academy, celebrating 40 years of consumer education.

Triodos Bank is also one of the founding fathers of the Global Alliance for Value Banking GABV, a network of banking leaders from around the world committed to advancing positive change in the banking sector. Collective goal is to change the banking system so that it is more transparent, supports economic, social and environmental sustainability, and is composed of a diverse range of banking institutions serving the real economy. Founded in 2009, there is a growing network, with banks, banking cooperatives and credit unions, microfinance institutions and community development banks joining from many parts of the world.

GABV members have one thing in common: a shared mission to use finance to deliver sustainable economic, social and environmental development, with a focus on helping individuals fulfil their potential and build stronger communities. Members are deeply connected to the people and the communities they serve and are accountable for the risks they both take and create for the people who use their products and services. Focusing on inclusion puts basic banking products in service of a greater number of people, rather than highly sophisticated products in the hands of a few.

The GABV comprises of 63 financial institutions and 16 strategic partners operating in countries across Asia, Africa, Australia, Latin America, North America and Europe. Collectively they serve more than 70 million customers, hold over $210 billion USD of combined assets under management, and supported by more than 77,000 co-workers.

Read more:

• Triodos Bank
• Global Alliance for Banking in Values GABV
• Short video about banking and participation

11 202009 September 2020

75 Years United Nations and the Future We Choose.

In 1945, August 15 the Japanese signed for piece and a better future after World War 2 on the battleship USS Missoury. October 24 the United Nations were founded together with 51 countries. In 1956 and 1973 Japan and Germany became members as well. Today almost all 196 countries are member of the worldwide dialogue about the Future We Want. In 2015 they decided to go together for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals 2015 – 2030 towards the Future WE Choose! (Booktitle Christiana Figueres). The book Alternatives to Economic Globalization / A Better World is Possible by 21 world thinkers and coordinated by John Cavanagh and Jerry Mander started the first World Social Forum in Porto Alegre Brazil in 2001. A first constructive start of consumer/citizen conciousness and responsibility (we met them in Stuttgart 2004). In the years that followed also education started up worldwide in schools and in society about mature, responsible lifestyles. In 2017 the manuscript The Freedom to be Free by Hannah Ahrendt was discovered and published, a research document about what has to be done after a revolution or a war. About the management of building the future! The UN Assembly meeting in New York September 21 will be titled: The Future We Want – The UN We Need.

The human being is always in progress becoming a real co-creator! From Adam and Eve untill today and beyond. (Arnold Toynbee – A Study of History). From the thinking of the Greek, the civil rights by the Romans and the start of economic globalization and trade since Marco Polo and the Market Hall in Venice (and Paciolo the founder of bookkeeping) the human beings became “heads hearts and hands” in managing the world. From the Renaissance in the 14th century, the American and French Revolutions in the 18th century toward the globalization of production today reaching a deeper level of working in the world as a whole. And towards the 21st century of maturity the individual consumer/citizen came into the spotlights. To take his/her own responsibility for searching all possible information, all relevant arguments and trying to take the best possible decisions to buy or not to buy! Since 1960 the protests came but also most national consumer organizations to look for all information on products and services and on consumption itself. From 1970 onwards consumers organized themselves in all kinds of specific initiatives and organizations around shops, schools, medical centres, etc etc. In 1980 and beyond all kind of innovative banks (GLS Bank Triodos Bank and our own MoneyManager360) and all kinds of financial structures came into being, in the 21st century all kinds of organizations started consumer education on schools and for adults (PERL, IFHE, Consumer360Academy). The Partnership for Education and Research on Responsible Lifestyles PERL was a worldwide network of researchers and teachertrainers (we joined them in 2006) that worked especially towards new curricula for schools. Much of their expertise and knowledge later adopted by the International Federation for Home Economics, EU and UN and Consumers International. All expertise is of course available to all organizations and all schools and all of the 7.000.000.001 consumers/citizens of the world family!

For the individual consumer we suggest the next twelve directions of further development and innovation:

01 RELIGION: Emancipation of Everyone! / Basics of ALL Religions (Martin Buber: Ich und Du)
02 ART: Thinking in Solutions! / Everyone is a Co-Creator! (Joseph Beuys)
03 SCIENCE: From Materialism to Holism! / From Geometry to Projective Geometry (Olive Whicher)
04 EDUCATION: Become who You are! / From Montessori to Waldorf Schools (Rudolf Steiner)
05 HEALTH: Eat and live Healthy! / Institute for Positive Health (Self Management)
06 FOOD AND NATURE: Towards 3D Agriculture! / Efficient-Biologic-Dynamic (Demeter)
07 HOUSING: From Cubic to Tangential Organic Architecture / Google “Sandcastle” Amsterdam (ING Bank HQ)
08 FINANCE: Past Present Future – Buying Lending Donating / Three ways of Financing – in Greek tri-odos (Triodos Banks)
09 TRAVEL: For Production For Trade For Consumption
10 COMMUNICATION: Free Thoughts Free Press Free Dialogue
11 HUMAN RIGHTS: From Romans to Revolutions to Consumer Rights (Freedom to be Free, Hannah Ahrendt)
12 ASSOCIATIONS: Consumer Trade Producer Together in Cooperations / True Price and Sustainability (UN SDG)

Read more:

• Consumer360Academy

04 202008 August 2020

Stakeholder Engagement and the 2030 SDG Agenda (Forword E-Learning Course MOOC)

The United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at its core, reflect the aspirations of millions of people from all over the world, for the world they want. Civil society, major groups and other stakeholders, showing unprecedented commitment and dynamism, made concrete contributions to the intergovernmental process that resulted in the adoption of the 2030 Agenda by Heads of State and Government in September 2015. Therefore, the 2030 agenda is an Agenda “of the people, by the people and for the people” and it is expected to be implemented with the participation of “all countries, all stakeholders and all people”.

The 17 SDGs cut across several interlinked challenges. Tackling climate change and achieving sustainable production and consumption patterns, for instance, are central to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and can unlock vast potential for economic growth in all regions and for all people. Creating peaceful and just societies are cornerstones of the 2030 Agenda, with the interrelation between security, humanitarian action and development being the very basis for the achievement of all SDGs.

The success of our collective journey to 2030 will greatly depend on how effectively Governments, who are in the driving seat of implementation of this transformative and universal agenda, engage national parliaments, local authorities, indigenous peoples, civil society, the scientific and academic community and the private sector in follow-up and implementation efforts and bridge the gap between people’s needs and national policy setting.

The multi-stakeholder nature of the 2030 Agenda demands an enabling environment for participation by all, as well as new ways of working in partnerships to mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources at all levels. This publication, which adapts the content of an e-learning course (Massive Open Online Course / MOOC) developed by the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), is designed for government officials and stakeholders interested in enhancing participation and inclusion in the implementation and followup of the 2030 Agenda at all levels.

It contains key information about participatory approaches in SDG implementation and provides concrete tools and methods in this regard. Ensuring concerted action is critical as we embark upon the Decade of Action to deliver the SDGs. We hope this publication can be a supporting tool in this regard.

Read more:

• Practical Guide for Stakeholders Engagement and the 2030 SDG Agenda
• Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for Stakeholders September – December 2020

08 202007 July 2020

China to Europe – From Top-Down to Bottom-Up

In the history of mankind developments came from the east and went to the west. Especially thanks to the Silk Roads and Marco Polo. But today and tomorrow hierarchical thinking and the “Art of War for Managers (Sun Tzu) are outdated. The new mantra of DIALOGUE (Dutch: Polderen) is the modern way of communication. In culture, democracy and …….. doing business.

Exactly 100 years ago Rudolf Steiner gave many lectures and courses for economy students about how we can create the future we want. About the three basic laws of freedom in culture, equality in democracy and lawmaking, and cooperation and association in all economic relations between consumer, trade and production or service (French: liberte egalite fraternite). As simple as it is! For our individual way of living, for organizations and for society as a whole. The 21st century is the time to learn why freedom and responsibility are the basis for maturity. From top-down structures towards bottom-up decision making. Consumers/citizens asking the questions, organizations giving the answers. Not vice versa!

Today the Corona crisis worldwide shows us that we have to take our own responsibility also in medical issues (even the UN World Health Organization WHO has introduced the new mantra: consumer healthcare is about managing your own healthcare).

Read more:

• World Economy (In A Threefold Social World Order), Rudolf Steiner 1922, GA 340 Online Text (cc)

01 202006 June 2020

HUMANKIND A HOPEFUL HISTORY / RUTGER BREGMAN

This is the Moment to Change the World

This is the text on the frontpage of Time Magazine last month and the main article written by the historian and writer Rutger Bregman. His fifth book Humankind – A Hopeful History is now translated in English and was already a bestseller in the Netherlands. Big changes mostly begin in the middle of great crisis (note: the chinese character for crisis is also the character for the possibility of change). During the Great Depression of the 1930’s, the Second World War and the Great Recession of 2008 the whole world became significant “Upgraded” in international relations, culture and economy. Now in the middle of the Corona crisis we can see again many new initiatives of cultural, social and economic relations worldwide! After every human illness or crisis we can often see the person or organization getting better – better than before! That is what we call the essence of development.

Read more:

• Time Magazine article

12 202005 May 2020

Consumers International Change Network

The newly launched Change Network is a global group of diverse organisations from civil society, governments and business, together with members to tackle specific consumer challenges and opportunities faster.

Invited progressive organisations are joining as founder associates to help shape the future now. By coming together, in partnerships on the right topic, at the right time, making real change happen.

Read more:

• Consumers International Change Network

06 202004 April 2020

The Paris Climate Agreement And The Future We Choose

Christiana Figueres was the one who made the Paris Agreement fit for agreement by all stakeholders. She did all the talking to help everyone and every government to say YES to the agreement on stopping the climate crisis. Now she has written a bestselling book HOW we ourselves as consumers can help to fix the crisis in a most comprehensive way, through a more sustainable and responsible lifestyle. But Christana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac who was the architect of the UN agreement are both optimistic that we will be succesful as consumers, together with all our producers and governments.

Read more:

• Authors interviewed (Watch on Youtube)

04 202003 March 2020

Economy – From Neanderthal to Life(s)Long Learning

Lifelong learning is a hot item in education, business and even in politics today! Especially learning children on financial literacy promoted in March every year during the Global Money Week, organized by OECD/INFE. To learn how to manage your necessities of life and how money reflects what you choose to buy or not to buy. To recognise all aspects of sustainability and responsibility, and so creating your life in harmony with the whole world around you.

When we were Neanderthalers in prehistoric times we already had to make those same choices on what we really needed and how we could divide all necessary labour to meet those needs. And although money did not yet exist by then, in our minds we were already perfect bookkeepers to recognise what should be reasonable or not. Today we should say: a reason-able income is a right, but in those times we had to do calculating in our mind to find the “true price” when exchanging labour against products.

Last year we introduced the MoneyManager360 as a toolkit for household bookkeeping and as an overview on all necessities of life. Especially useful for the individual consumer. This February we introduced it as a toolkit for classroom games on home economics, also meant as an eye-opener to understand local economies and world economy as well. By playing it in a group of twelve people to divide the work for making all necessary goods and services. Then we have the most direct way to learn and understand economy. Working in a group also gives a much deeper insight in all aspects of the twelve necessities of life, the seven aspects of trade and of all possible connections in between. And of course the overview where everything fits together in a most harmonic way! The game gives a lively picture of economy and finance, the moneymanager is the most simple and easy bookkeeping sheet or daily bankaccount when used in an app.

The classroom game can be played in a natural environment, in an open air museum or a museum for education, or in the classroom. First by talking about everybody’s needs and about reasons and reasonabilty (round 1). Then everybody can make an offer to make a specific product or service based on his/her own expertise and capacity (round 2). The next round all aspects of trade can be discussed such as quality, quantity and delivery (round 3). Then all products and services can be translated into amounts of money representing the worth of it (round 4). Finally can become visible how everyone’s income should be reason-able for the reasons to buy the necessary necessities of life (round 5). Lessons learned can be discussed in combination with possible options for product development, or efficiency.

Especially interesting is that we are always playing four different roles in the worldeconomy. Most of us as consumer/citizen and producer/service provider, some of us as trader /transporter or banker/bookkeeper. And by playing this game we can understand worldeconomy much better! The twelve necessities of life and the seven aspects of trade are the basic eye-openers for home economics, business, politics and the big picture of worldeconomy! The game will be further promoted this year and beyond. Our website contains all ingredients for lifelong learning!

Read more:

• Consumer360Academy

08 202002 February 2020

Stakeholders For A Cohesive And Sustainable World
Wake – up call for 7.000.000.001 consumers/citizens

Davos was again host for the World Economic Forum, now celebrating their 50th year! Klaus Schwab started this forum by inviting managers from business politics and ngo’s in 1970, just after the protests of 1968, but two years before the report of the Club of Rome! A visionair who saw the need for a platform for the necessary dialogues on the future we want, this time not only inviting shareholders but ALL stakeholders of the worldeconomy. And that’s about us! Because ALL 7.000.000.001 consumers/citizens are in-the-end responsible for what is happening in the world. Because consumers are the ones who are paying 100% of all the products and services in the world, directly or indirectly via taxes, assurances, etc.

Read more:

• World Economic Forum

06 202001 January 2020

Climate Change Strategies In The Making

From New York to Santiago de Chile to Madrid to Glasgow. A sailing trip around the world for Greta Thunberg, promoting climate against economic growth only, quality of life against quantity only. She was Person of the Year 2019 in Time Magazine, proudly on the frontpage! But the COP 25 conference in Madrid did not go so well, and no decisions were made yet. But the will to change strategies was strong and most voices sounded loud and clear to take the necessary decisions in favour of the climate and a maximum rise of temperature of 1.5 degrees Celsius. We will hopefully see that at the COP 26 conference in Glasgow, Scotland 9 – 19 November.

But the most important decisions have to be made by ourselves, as consumers! We are free to choose, but also 100% responsible for all decisions we make. To buy or not to buy is our daily mantra: to find all necessary information, to discuss all relevant arguments, to take the best possible decisions about quality, quantity and price. It is all about the quality of life, for all people and for the planet! Only when we ask the best questions, we can hope to get the best answers. Working from an economy of supply and demand, towards an economy of question and answer!

Read more:

• United Nations COP 25 Climate Conference in Madrid

11 201912 December 2019

Consumer/Citizen Responsibility – The Basis for the Future We Want

Published November 19 just after the impeachment hearings in Washington, these words are at the heart of the epilogue of the bestselling book “A Warning” written by Anonymus, a senior Trump administration officer who took the courage to write this book as a warning for all of us consumers/citizens worldwide. A warning that we are all responsible not only to choose the governments best fit for governing, but also to keep being involved in what happens year by year, minute by minute. Thomas Paine already said so in his book “Common Sense” published 1776 when the United States were founded. He also signed his book as an anonymus: “written by an Englishman”.

Read more:

• A Warning / Anonymus (TwelveBooks Publishers)

11 201911 November 2019

The New French Revolutions

The French Revolution of 1789 was about inequality. And all the revolutions this month in Lebanon and Santiago de Chili are about inequality too. So what’s new(s)? Thomas Piketty wrote a new book on how to manage property between individuals and society, with the intriguing title “Capital and Ideology”. A 1200 page book on capital and property (english edition will be published in 2020 March 10). About the billions earned by means of more and more efficiency and innovation should not be the property of individuals, but of society as a whole. To reinvest in innovations of new products and in education of future consumers and producers who will shape the society we want. Some enterprises are already changing their mission statements to make money work for all, by asking labourers and consumers to participate in their decisionmaking.

Read more:

• Thomas Piketty – Capital and Ideology (Harvard University Press)

10 201910 October 2019

Greta Thunberg at the UN Climate Summit – From Goals to Actions

The UN Climate Summit in New York was about action instead of debate alone. Especially inspiring were the protestmarches of schoolkids around the world to call for action! Greta Thunberg, the 16 year old “viking” schoolgirl from Sweden, presented a short keynote speech spiraling from astonishment to angriness about all the thinking in terms of economic growth alone. She called for action towards sustainability, fairness for all, and especially for action NOW. Because we are running out of time if all scientists are correct in their forecasts. Not only for the next generation, but for all generations to come! Even for ourselves, when we (hopefully) come back in a next life …

Read more:

• Greta Thunberg at the UN Climate Summit

04 201909 September 2019

Banks Promoting Consumer Financial Literacy

ING Bank (see picture) and most other banks in the Netherlands are now promoting sustainability and financial literacy. Through lessons, apps, toolkits and moneymanagers (household and budget booklets).
For expenses only, we developed the most basic MoneyManager360 (see our own website www.consumer360.org).

08 201908 August 2019

24 Hours Econothon – World Economy in the Classroom

All countries and all people in the world have common challenges. In accordance with the SDG’s (UN Sustainable Development Goals 2015 – 2030) the World Bank and civil society organisations worldwide work together to find the best possible solutions for a better world. Education, sustainability, levering trade to reduce poverty, and everything else that can help the world economy to be profitable for everyone. In a 24-hour marathon discussion live on the internet, the World Bank discussed all aspects of world development and explained what they are doing to help us make the futures we want.

Read more:

• World Bank Econothon / Replays

11 201907 July 2019

Sustainable Development Goals – First conclusions after four years

The adoption of the 2030 SDG Agenda was a victory for international cooperation, but most of all for the world’s people. The high-level gatherings in September 2019, including the high-level political forum on sustainable development, will give the United Nations a moment to reflect on the first four years of this essential journey. Notwithstanding slow progress, I remain convinced that the Organization can bring the Agenda’s inspiring vision to life.

On all fronts, multilateral action is essential. Only together can countries find solutions to poverty, inequality and climate change, the defining challenges of the times. Only together can they bolster their rules-based global trading system and mobilize the technology, solutions and financing needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Only together can countries transform economies and societies to empower all women and girls, truly benefit all people and preserve the health of the planet.

Let countries make the world gathering in September a moment when they summon the ambition required on climate change, re-energize and refocus their response to the Sustainable Development Goals and step up their commitment to reaching those who are the furthest behind and supporting the most vulnerable countries.

The pressures of the era are mounting; the trust that binds the world is fraying. Today’s generations and the next need the world to do better. Fortunately, there is still time to achieve the future envisioned in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Let the world find the wisdom, the solidarity and the will to move ahead in order to ensure a life of dignity and prosperity for everyone, everywhere.

(These conclusions will be the basis for the UN SDG Summit in New York 2019 September 24 – 26)

Read more:

• SDG Report (PDF)

11 201906 June 2019

Looking for New World Strategies

This month the wellknown magazine Foreign Affairs is all about searching for a strategy for the USA. It is published by the Council of Foreign Relations in New York, which is since almost hundred years the most important advisory board for US foreign policy, It is also very interesting to read for politicians and business people worldwide. And now in the 21st century also highly interesting for NGO’s, civil society, consumers and consumer organizations. Because the globalised world now involves all parties. Because we are all dependent on all resources and therefore responsible for all kinds of relations between people worldwide. Searching for new strategies how to work and live together is basic stuff for everyone! Especially now that world politics, world economy and the interactions between all cultures are most actual after the EU elections!

Read more:

• Foreign Affairs

03 201905 May 2019

100 Years of Social Threefolding – Impulse for the Future

Just after the First World War and the peacetalks in Versailles it was in Stuttgart, Germany that Rudolf Steiner gave many lectures on the basic nature of the human being, of society and of the universe as a whole. These can be recognised as threefolded. Head, heart and hands are our tools for thinking, feeling and willing. The same aspects can be recognised in society: culture, legal life and economy. But the essence is that the corresponding qualities are freedom, equality and cooperation in their own domain. And not in one of the other two! Only then society can work properly. And problems can be solved most efficiently, crises and even wars prevented.

At the conference in Forum3 in Stuttgart more than 500 people were welcomed by the mayor who spoke about the history of Stuttgart, where many of Rudolf Steiners ideas were already introduced from 1919 onwards in a variety of products and organizations. Waldorf Schools, biodynamic agriculture, Weleda medicines and natural health products and much more for all necessities of life.

Read more:

• 100 Years Social Threefolding Conference (German)

04 201904 April 2019

Global Money Week, Financial Literacy, MoneyManagers and More …

Since 2012 the Global Money Week helps children around the world to learn financial literacy. On what sorts of information you need and what arguments are relevant to take the best possible decisions to buy or not to buy. In almost all countries around the world children could visit stock exchanges, banks, and money museums. Or take classes on financial literacy: spending, saving and subsidising. Or learn all about income, taxes, insurances and all kinds of earnings and savings.

For all the (future) consumers of the world we ourselves launched the MoneyManager360. The most complete but also the most simple overview of all expenses for all necessities of life. The new extra domain-name www.moneymanager360.money redirects to the homepage of our website www.consumer360.org where you can find the moneymanager (one small excel sheet only, download for free). All the other pages of the website are in fact background information for taking decisions.

Read more:

• Global Money Week

06 201903 March 2019

The Whole World’s a Stage and Every Human Being a Mere Player! (Shakespeare in the Earth Theatre?)

In February it was the premiere of the Rotterdam Academy of City Astronauts going on tour through the Netherlands. A highly interesting experience on how astronauts are looking at the earth as a stage on which we live together with 7.000.000.001 consumers. And how fragile she is! And how important it will be to reach at least the SDGs in 2030. Especially when we observe the world as astronauts we can get the right feeling about the urgency and the best possible overview of all problems and possibilities.

Thanks to the great storytelling of initiator Marjolein van Heemstra the bigger picture of human development becomes very real and highly motivating! And who wants to see the Earth from the astronauts perspective themselves a visit to the unique Earth Theatre in Kerkrade (Netherlands) is recommended.

Read more:

• Academy for City Astronauts
• Columbus Earth Theatre

08 201902 February 2019

World Economic Forum – Another World in the Making

It was in Davos again that all aspects of how to achieve a better world according to the SDGs were discussed. Almost all discussions were enthousiastic, constructive and relevant in themselves and in relation to the worldwide questions. Too much positive developments for a journalist to decide on what to report! So please look at the website of the World Economic Forum yourself to experience the vibration of Another World in the Making!

Read more:

• World Economic Forum / Annual Meeting in Davos Switzerland

09 201901 January 2019

The New Silk Roads – Production Trade and Consumption in the 21st Century

The future of globalization will depend mostly on where commodities are found, trade routes are developed and cultures cooperate, coexist or “clash” with each other. The bestselling masterpiece Silk Roads (2015) was about the past, this book The New Silk Roads (december 2018) is about the future. A must-read for everyone who is interested in the economical roots of globalization and human development.

Read more:

• Prof Peter Frankopan – EU Lecture About History (video)
• The New Silk Roads – The Present and Future of the World (book)
• China’s One Belt One Road Project (CNN News 20181231)
• SILK ROADS (ILLUSTRATED VERSION FOR EDUCATION)

11 201812 December 2018

A Reasonable Income is a Right – A Human Right

This was the essence of our article “About the quality of life” which we wrote for a conference in 2008. It was published on the website of the PDSE conference about sustainable and socially responsible economics at the university of Tilburg in the Netherlands. Especially the word “REASONable” was meant to focus attention on all kinds of REASONS in the division of all created welfare (GDP) into all kinds of income. How much do you really need for daily expenses, insurances, study or other expenditures, for all twelve necessities of life? Because the discussion about basic income is in fact the starting point for the much bigger discussion about all levels of income between a dollar per day and ten million per year.

November 28 an evaluation and a wider discussion about basic income took place in Amsterdam at Pakhuis De Zwijger organised by the VPRO tv channel for future journalism. A long interview with Rutger Bregman and discussions with many others and the public as well. What is the progress five years after Rutger’s TEDxMaastricht talk and what are the perspectives today and tomorrow?

The most interesting opinion was that basic income in western countries is already existing but named otherwise such as social security, medical assurances, payment for unemployment, and finance for study and retirement. The discussion about basic income is not about the gap between rich and poor in general. But it can help us think about it in the years ahead.

Read more:

• About the quality of life (PDF)

04 201811 November 2018

21 Lessons for the 21st Century – 21 Challenges for Consumers!

Yuval Noah Harari is professor of history in Israel and wrote his third masterpiece! After his books about the history and the future of mankind this one is about here and now. About the world problems of today and the challenges there are. The big picture of what is happening in the world and what the options are to go forward towards the future we REALLY want!

Read more:

• Yuval Noah Harari about why he wrote his book (2 minutes)

08 201810 October 2018

Alternative Finance Festival – Alternatives for the Future of Finance

The Alternative Finance Festival (AFF) was a grassroots festival throughout the Netherlands which celebrated the financial alternatives that already exist and everyone who is working on financial change, from citizen co-ops to ethical banking, from local currencies to unconditional giving. On 15 September 2018 it has been 10 years (!) since the fall of the US bank Lehman Brothers. It was the start of the financial crisis and it cost governments billions trying to save the banks. Since then several measures have been taken, but the financial sector has not fundamentally changed and we are happily moving on to a next crisis. The Alternative Finance Festival took place to show that not only things must and can be different, but that there are already many alternatives paving the way!

Read more:

• Alternative Financial Festival 2018

04 201809 September 2018

IFHE Conference: What is Happening in Home Economics?
Workshop MoneyManager360 – Toolkit for LifeLongLearning

The IFHE conference last August in Osnabruck, Germany was about the latest developments in home economics, also in relation to world economy, sustainable development goals and rethinking economics and education. The International Federation for Home Economics was founded in 1908 so it is also celebrating its 110 years anniversary. The conferences in 2019 and 2020 will be in Trinidad and Atlanta, USA titled “creativity and innovation in home economics education for sustainable development”. The IFHE is partner of Consumers International and United Nations.

At the conference there were sessions about research, education, consumer issues, financial literacy and sustainability. We gave a presentation on the MoneyManager360. THE easiest toolkit for bookkeeping our daily expenses for our 12 necessities of life.

Home economics changed because humanity entered the 21st century. We now live in the age of wanting to know everything, searching for the most relevant arguments and taking responsibility for our decisions and expenses. For the future(s) we want.

MoneyManager360
Download for free on the homepage of our own website www.consumer360.org

Read more:

• IFHE/EAHE Conference 2018

11 201808 August 2018

Sustainable Development Goals, 3 Years In Progress
United Nations HLPF / Partnership Exchange July 13

This year the High-Level Political Forum HLPF on the Sustainable Development Goals 2015-2030 took place at the United Nations Headquarters in New York July 9 – 18 including one day especially for the Partnership Exchange (we were there in 2016). The “hot items” this year were goals number 6, 7, 11, 12, 15, 17. Of which number 12 is on consumer-producer relations for sustainable development – which is our main goal! Because only by good relations the best possible sustainable developments can be achieved.

Read more:

• United Nations High-Level Political Forum 2018
• United Nations Partnership Exchange 2018

10 201807 July 2018

70 Years International Archives Day – Learning from the past to build the future

June 9 was the 70th birthday of the International Council on Archives ICA in Paris founded together with UNESCO. Called International Archives Day and promoting all archives worldwide to “go out of the box – into the world” so that everybody can learn from the past to build the future we want.

Because “the records that we preserve and make accessible ensure that the deeds and achievements of all individuals are not forgotten. They ensure that the rights and entitlements of citizens are recognised and respected. They hold the intellectual capital that will fuel our information economy. And they are the evidence of government actions that hold our governments and their officials accountable to the people that they serve. You cannot change the past, but you can change the future. And this is the principal purpose of Archives. To bring the past to the present and enable us to construct the future we want” (David Fricker, president of ICA).

In Maastricht we organized an Open Day to present our Consumer360Archive on the history of the consumer from the 20th into the 21st century, when consumer initiatives became consumer groups and consumer organizations.

Read more:

• International Council on Archives

04 201806 June 2018

Rethinking Education and Consumer Education

This year the State of the World published by the Worldwatch Institute has got the highly inspiring title “EarthEd – Rethinking Education on a Changing Planet”. About educating the next generation to take over the responsibility for nature and for the prosperity of all mankind. Of course the book is more comprehensive than the one-page Annual Report 2014 on our own website (See: About us). This was especially written for consumers and the twelve consumer organizations working towards an economy of question and answer together with producers, traders and bankers. And that means: life(s)long learning!

Read more:

• Worldwatch Institute

12 201805 May 2018

The 1968 Student Revolution – Starting The Future We Want

Fifty years after the student revolution in May 1968 around the world many people, consumers, citizens, companies and politicians are working together in dialogue about quality of life, quantities of products and services and true pricing for true income. Some people doubt the progress made after the uprising capitalistic trends. But most people and most politicians in the Netherlands and the world as well are now really optimistic about the progress made and the trends towards the future. Former leader of the Green Party Prof Femke Halsema wrote a book about imagination and power (of all stakeholders) for the Month of Philosophy. Marianne Thieme, leader of the Party for the Animals (and Nature), made a lively video presentation about the urgency of a holistic view on Planet Earth. Jesse Klaver leader of the Green Party invited Thomas Piketty to talk about his book Capital and its influence on inequality. Norbert Klein started a new party for free-thinkers to build a better society based on open dialogue, basic income and working for real constructive and social politics for everyone. Internationally we saw the French president arguing to Trump that there is no Planet B so we have to work together worldwide! The Sustainable Development Goals are the new guidelines for all peoples of the world to meet each other and work for the earth and the universe as a whole!

Read more:

• 1968 video news and comments

09 201804 April 2018

World Trade Organization Towards New Concepts

After the US took their decisions to tighten import/export rules and taxation, also the EU, China and many other countries are now working towards new world trade relations. Consumers of course need to have a fair and sustainable system of world trade rules to get their daily necessities of life. And it is always the consumer him/herself who pays the final price. So hopefully all discussions will lead to the best possible prices.

Read more:

• World Trade Organization

12 201803 March 2018

Transforming the World – World Social Forum and New Business Models

The World Social Forum this year in Salvador/Bahia Brazil was again a great event! It was all about transforming the world into a one we want. Between hundreds of workshops there was one session about what to expect from the results of the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland last month. Seen from the perspective of the consumer-producer dialogue which becomes more and more daily, monthly and yearly activity worldwide represented by consumer organizations and marketing departments, it is interesting to see that producers and trade and marketing are also gearing up their activities to find the best possible business models. To achieve modern and mature dialogue about our daily necessities of life according to sustainability, true pricing and responsible lifestyles. We can read about those intentions not only in the guidelines of ISO 26000 or the GRI guidelines for Global Reporting but also in the book that Klaus Schwab (founder of the World Economic Forum) published last year: The Fourth Industrial Revolution ISBN 978-0-241-30075-6. He also makes the statement that transforming the world is of course only possible when ALL STAKEHOLDERS are involved and acting towards the world we want!

Read more:

• World Social Forum 2018

08 201802 February 2018

Corporate Governance + Government Governance + Consumer Governance = Global Governance

The 48th World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland was a great week where the whole world met each other to think and discuss about the future we want especially looking from the economic points of view. About sustainable and social progress towards the Global Goals Agenda 2030 and beyond. Special guest Malala spoke about the crucial role of education for girls and women not only for more equality in living and income but also for the “female” qualities in business and world trade needed to work forward to more sustainability and social progress in general.

Read more:

• World Economic Forum

11 201801 January 2018

Looking back and forward

January last year Donald Trump became the new president in the United States. One year later he is still in charge and the Republican party can make quite a lot of progress for the economy as such but almost nothing in the direction of sustainability and/or social welfare. The whole world is now looking to him if he will be relevant or irrelevant for the the year(s) to come ……

Also the Monsanto Tribunal last April in The Hague was like a wake-up call to the whole world that genetic engineering is still a great threat if used for commercial purposes only without asking the essential ethical and environmental questions about the sustainable future of mankind. Although the honeybees are the ambassadors of nature we have to make the right decisions as human beings, as consumers, as citizens, and as presidents as well ….. !

Read more:

• More than honey (trailer)

12 201712 December 2017

All noses in the same direction

The introduction of the 17 Global Goals in 2015 was a real turning point in human history turning all noses in the same direction for a better future. So many conferences, websites, seminars, books and articles in the press worldwide in this last year were about the future-we-want-in-the-making. The next conference will be July 9-18 at the United Nations in New York. If possible we will be there too at the Partnership Exchange July 13. All general and parallel sessions can be watched live-stream and also downloaded afterterwards. Thanks to the internet we are all living in a globalized world now! Together with 7.000.000.001 consumers!

Read more:

• 2018 UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development Goals

08 201711 November 2017

A better future in the making

Worldbank and IMF had their annual meetings talking about finance but also about more equality for people’s income around the world in response to the first Sustainable Development Goal SDG 1. Thanks to the economic development of China and India the percentage of extreme poverty was now less then 10 % for the first time! Because of investments and education as well. Also the annual Drucker Forum (Peter Drucker was the founding father of management theory) was titled Growth and Inclusive Prosperity.

Read more:

• Worldbank
• International Monetary Fund IMF
• Drucker Forum

08 201710 October 2017

Global Reporting Initiative – 20 Years for Sustainable and Responsible Reporting

The Global Reporting Initiative has “conquered” the world of sustainable and responsible bookkeeping within 20 years! This tiny organization from Amsterdam has made financial reporting most fit for reading by all stakeholders including consumers.

Most of the multinational corporations registered at the stock exchanges worldwide use this all-stakeholder reporting together with the official International Financial Reporting System IFRS which was implemented in 2005. The GRI Guidelines are also designed and connected to the guidelines for sustainable and responsible production and trade ISO 26000 and ISO 20400. In the International Standards Organization ISO also most consumer organizations are involved (including us).

Read more:

• www.globalreporting.org

08 201707 July / August / September 2017

UN Global Goals Year 2 and the Rethinking of Economics

At the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York at the riverside of the East River and since the Sustainable Development Goals were agreed by all countries of the world in 2015 we followed the second Partnership Exchange conference via livestream this time. Especially the keynote speech of professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University was impressive and highly motivating to go forward with all the 17 goals toward 2030 and beyond.

Also former US vice president Al Gore appeared in the news with his newest book about Why How What about Change which will become his newest bestseller. An Inconvenient Sequel describes all the issues about climate change in all the latest details and also how to help change the course of Mother Nature into the future we want.

Doughnut Economics is the newest inspiring title of a book about retinking economics in the most fundamental way. The doughnut was chosen as the picture of a ring between the minimum income needed for human lifestyles and the maximum possibilities of Mother Nature to deliver the resources for our daily needs. Professor Kate Raworth from Oxford University published this greatest bestseller-to-be this year to help economists AND consumers/citizens to adopt a more living kind of thinking in economics. It is written in a very daily language and most people read it untill the last page!

Read more:

• Jeffrey Sachs / State of the World (min 33-54)
• Al Gore / An Inconvenient Sequel
• Kate Raworth / Doughnut Economics

08 201704 April / May / June 2017

Put your money where your mouth is – Buy the Change!

We can change ourselves. But we cannot change the world on our own! More than 80% of our lifestyle depends upon those people to whom we asked to produce products or to deliver services for us based on the division of all labour worldwide. Because of that same division of labour and expertise we can produce of course more quality and/or more quantity for lower prices than by doing it ourselves. But of course we have also to pay the true price for true sustainability and true income of those who are our producers. Then only then we can name ithe worleconomy an economy of question and answer!

To manage our expenses and to have an agenda for the annual meetings of consumer organizations with producers it is most easy to use a household booklet and/or agenda based on the 12 necessities of life. And in all dialogues between consumers and producers we can use the 7 aspects of trade.

More and more the whole world is working towards more sustainabilty. Following the UN Sustainable Development Goals we can now see the ISO 26000 directions for producers, and since this year also the ISO 20400 for working towards fair trade and true price.

The international Triodos Bank for financing sustainability started their new slogan “Buy the Change” meant for all of us especially as consumers while we are the ones who decide to which farmer architect or carmaker etc etc our euro yen or dollar goes for a new round in our everyday purchases and financial decisions.

Read more:

• Triodos Bank / Buy the Change
• ISO 26000 / 20400
• BudgetManager360

04 201703 March 2017

Education Dialogue Change – Global Goal SDG 17

More than 7.000.000.000 consumers are taking their everyday decisions to buy or not to buy products or services for their daily living. Education about the world around us is now more important than ever because of the many problems in all areas of our cultural social and economical world order.

Towards a new economical and social world order dialogue on a regular basis between consumers and producers is the essential basis. Only by meeting each other live (and via internet) understanding of the real problems and possible solutions can be managed and innovations triggered for the future we want. By asking better questions we can hope for better answers and better solutions!

From a macrocosmic point of view and way of thinking, through all possible arguments about the WHY HOW and WHAT towards a final “Put your Money where your Mouth is”.

From Sustainable Development Global Goals via the worldwide agreed ideas about sustainability in ISO 26000 we can change the world around us in the best possible directions!

From the Story of Stuff through Change towards Solutions!

Read more:

• STORY OF STUFF (BOOK)
• STORY OF STUFF (20 MIN)
• STORY OF CHANGE (6 MIN)
• STORY OF SOLUTIONS (9 MIN)

10 201702 February 2017

Dialogue Dialogue Dialogue – Global Goal SDG 12

The Global Goal SDG 12 requires a systemic approach and cooperation among actors operating in the supply chain, from producer to final consumer. It involves engaging consumers through awareness-raising and education on sustainable consumption and lifestyles, providing consumers with adequate information through standards and labels and engaging in sustainable public procurement, among others. This is the official text of SDG 12 of the United Nations declaration about the Sustainable Development Goals 2015 – 2030.

For this purpose the international guidelines for sustainable production and consumption ISO 26000 and especially the follow up of these guidelines the newly introduced ISO 20400 about dialogue in the supply chain are providing the information infrastructures and suggestions for dialogue among ALL stakeholders about ALL aspects of ALL products and services we need for our daily living (January 2017 – to be published May 2017). We were (partly) involved in the Dutch working group to think about the consumer aspects and because dialogue is the main instrument for working towards the future we want.

And whatever product or service we are communicating about it is always about the seven aspects of all trade: quality, quantity and price, about guarantees, and finally about payment, delivery and user issues. These are the aspects of trade as described in every book about economics and globalization. The modern aspects of trade are now also sustainability, true pricing, labelling and ethics.

Read more:

• The 7 steps of consumer choice (PDF)

04 201701 January 2017

Education in the 21st Century – Consumer Freedom and Responsibility

The year 2016 was full of activities and conferences about education, THE most important Global Goal for making the future we want. Especially the education of the next generations in schools and universities for finding their ways to cope with all the worldwide problems now and in the future. But also of course for the adults of today, and for all organizations in business, government and non-governmental organizations.

On January 10 this year even President Obama gave us in his Farewell Speech the urgent wake-up call to become more and more active citizens to make democracy work! Freedom and responsibility are the two sides of the same coin!

United Nations Partnership Exchange

July 18 we visited the United Nations Partnership Exchange conference in New York for the first year evaluation of the Sustainable Development Goals 2015-2030 and for looking forward for the year(s) to come. About three hundred participants representing partner organizations from around the world reported about their activities and about the plans for the future. Looking toward the little green park outside the building we saw the great bronze statue of the archangel Saint Michael on his horse with a long spear fighting the dragon of evil. This could give us an image of hope that the Global Goals will be reached even if everything looks to be too difficult sometimes.

International Conference on Consumer Research

September 26 we were in Bonn Germany at the International Conference on Consumer Research ICCR for the latest results of researchers from around the world. Bonn is also the residence of the International Federation for Home Economics IFHE the worldwide organization for teachers and researchers in home economics.since 1912, Especially interesting was the closing keynote speech of Frank Trentmann author of the book just launched one month earlier about the complete history of THE consumer. His book The Empire of Things is already a bestseller from day 1 and a masterpiece for reading not only for researchers but for every consumer as well!

International Conference on Financial Education

October 13 the International Conference on Financial Education was held in Auckland New Zealand organized by the OECD / INFE. Especially for research about financial literacy teached in schools. This time a little bit too expensive for us to go but we hope to join a conference in the future. It also triggered us to renew our contacts with editors for an upgraded reprint of our own financial agenda the Consumer360Manager.

TEDxAmsterdamED

At TedxAmsterdmED in March and TEDxNyenrodeUniversity in October we learned a lot about the latest developments in education worldwide not only related to schools and universities but also in lifelong learning and even in learning how to win the Olympic Games by accepting yourself and not only thinking about the top you want to reach!

Club of Rome

And last but not least we were invited for the two day seminar at Nyenrode University organized by the Club of Rome in the Netherlands. A highly inspiring seminar about how we can really change our habits necessary for real change towards a better world. Professor Dennis Meadows who ws co-founder of the Club of Rome and the co-author of the Limits to Growth in 1972 introduced his latest bestseller to be The Climate Change Playbook! He presented all 22 games how to learn to change our habits for real change!

The world in dialogue – the future of marketing

For the years to come education will be highest priority for all of us consumers young and old because WE are the change! And working towards an economy of question and answer we are the ones to ask better questions so that producers can give us better answers in delivering better products and better services. For that we need all kinds of platforms and activities to exchange needs and possibilities. Consumer organizations and inititiatives will be the game changers towards new business models of this new bottom-up marketing.

Consumer360Academy and catalyzing change

In 1980 November 11 our chairman started his research project about new consumer initiatives and consumer organizations and the role of the single consumer and the management information needed to be able to find relevant arguments to take best possible decisions, Working at the newly founded Triodos Bank for sustainable and ethical business finance he had the opportunity to meet many new initiatives in all kinds of projects in agriculture and food, healthcare, education, housing, transport, communication etc etc. After seven years of research and many newsletters he published in 1998 his sixty page book Consumer freedom and responsibility – towards the 21st century. Founding the Free Consumers Association in 2001 was the next step and the website Consumer360Academy in 2004 the final step to inform consumers and organizations worldwide. By ongoing research, following all the news in the world, helping many projects by lobbying and moderating, with brainstorms or a simple email about an interesting article or link, helping where possible in catalyzing change.

03 201612 December 2016

Club of Rome to COP 22 – Solutions in the Making

One year after the Climate Summiit COP21 in Paris this month in Marrakech in Morocco the COP 22 conference was about starting towards solutions for the problems causing climate change. Especially interesting was the launch of Dennis Meadows newest book about changing attitude and behaviour. The Climate Change Playbook – 22 Systems Thinking Games for More Effective Communication about Climate Change.

In the old beautiful castle of Nyenrode Business University in the Netherlands Dennis Meadows co-author of Limits to Growth (Club of Rome 1972) presented us with great enthousiasm the 22 games that teachers and trainers can use to learn children and adults and organizations as well not only to understand the problems but also to find the tools for effective communication about climate change and to real change in attitudes and behaviour, habits and lifestyles. The Climate Chance Playbook is a masterpiece for transforming system-dynamic thinking towards taking the right decisions in our lifestyles.

These simple interactive games in the Climate Change Playbook help practioners and educators present climate change from a systems-perspective demonstrating its complex interconnectred web of causes, effects and unintended impacts. Designed by leaders in sytems-thinking climate communications and sustainability, the games focus on learning by doing and are suitable for a variety of ages and audiences. Playing the games help people navigate the obstacles that make understanding climate change so difficult and also identify the leverage points to create real long term solutions.

“When you’re walking along a tricky curving, unknown, surprising, obstacle-strewn path you’d be a fool to keep your head down and look just at the next step in front of you. You’d be equally a fool just to peer far ahead and never notice what’s immediately under your feet. You need to be watching both the short and the long term. You need to watch the whole system!”

Read more:

• The Climate Change Playbook (ISBN 9781603586764)

04 201611 November 2016

OECD Global Symposium on Financial Education in Auckland New Zealand

More than 150 high-level delegates from 40 countries attended the two-day event in Auckland, New Zealand, including officials and experts from the OECD/International Network on Financial Education (OECD/INFE), ministries of finance and education, central banks, regulatory and supervisory authorities, governmental officials, as well as international organisations, the academic community, the private sector and NGOs.

This high-level global symposium addressed the following topics:

• How we convince a generation who “want it now” to save
• How we compete with the instant gratification of “buy now, pay later
• How we shift thinking so that today’s demands and financial needs are balanced with achieving sustainable behaviour change to improve financial well-being tomorrow
• The specific needs of women and how they can be addressed
• Identifying needs and gaps through the results of the first OECD/INFE Survey on Financial Literacy and Financial Inclusion

Read more:

• OECD Global Symposium on Financial Education
• OECD International Gateway for Financial Education

03 201610 October 2016

International Conference on Consumer Research 2016

The Competence Center of Consumer Research North Rhine-Westphalia (CECORE NRW) organized the second International Conference on Consumer Research (ICCR) 2016 September 26-27 in the Science Center (Wissenschaftszentrum) in Bonn Germany. The theme of the conference was “The 21st Century Consumer: Vulnerable, Responsible, Transparent?” and meant to discuss different views, concepts, and models of consumers and the implications for policy-making. Questions like: Is there a way to protect vulnerable consumers more efficiently? Can responsible consumers get new tools to achieve healthy and sustainable societies? Is transparency an asset or a threat to consumers? Does nudging help to unfold self-governance of consumers?

Roles, capabilities and responsibilities of consumers seem to be rapidly changing. Companies and politics reach out to consumers to shape future markets and the well-being of our societies. Interdisciplinary consumer research is vital to explore conditions and consequences of change. Researchers from different disciplines and countries worldwide gathered to enrich this debate.

Prof. Victoria Thoresen gave an inspiring keynote speech about the educated consumer who wants to be part of the chain more and more in the dialogue between producers and consumers and all other stakeholders. (Read more: September News). Prof. Frank Trentmann the writer of the amazing history of the consumer untill the 21st century The Empire of Things and a great storyteller about the consumer in space and time gave the closing speech of the conference (Read more: August News).

Read more:

• Program ICCR 2016

04 201609 September 2016

UNESCO Chair – Partnership for Education and Research About Responsible Living PERL

The 17 Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets which were adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015 build on the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals and seek to address their unfinished business. “The interlinkages and integrated nature of the Sustainable Development Goals are of crucial importance in ensuring that the purpose of the new Agenda is realised. If we achieve our ambitions across the full extent of the Agenda, the lives of all will be profoundly improved and our world will be transformed for the better.” (From the preamble of the 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development)Awareness of the impacts human activity have on the environment and on society is not new, but integrating up-to-date, evidence-based insights on the topic into higher education curricula and practice is only slowly becoming noticeable.

Following the first global wake-up calls in the early 1970’s, the topic of minimizing the effects on nature caused by the way people live was reiterated and became the core mandate for Agenda 21 initiatives. Focus was put on the role of industry and government in improving infrastructures, enacting regulations and modifying products in order to reduce carbon emissions. Life-cycle analysis of products and dematerialization/decoupling production processes have been the main approaches, concentrating on improving energy efficiency.

Eventually economists and social scientists provided additional perspectives dealing with the social consequences of unsustainable production and consumption. The role of the individual and his/her lifestyle choices has become a significant part of the discussion on how to mitigate climate change and promote the transition to a more just, sustainable future. The Marrakech Process on Sustainable Consumption and Production (2000-2010) supported projects and worked to bring to the attention of educators, policy-makers and the public at large the pressing need to reflect on how we organize our daily life, socialize, share, learn and educate. In other words, rethinking our ways of living, how we buy and what we consume.

The UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) integrated education for sustainable consumption into its agenda as an essential element of ESD in 2008. By then recognition of the interrelatedness of systems and processes was growing and the discussion about sustainable lifestyles expanded to examine how unsustainable ways of living are connected to non-communicable diseases, to poverty, and to the unequal usage and distribution of resources. The concepts of social responsibility began to incorporate consideration also for future generations and their opportunities.

At the World Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) held in 2012, leaders of the world agreed that awareness-raising and education about sustainable lifestyles needed to increase both in scope and quality. A 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (10-YFP) was adopted and preparations are being made to launch the program on Sustainable Lifestyles and Education in order to up-scale positive initiatives already in existence and to support new, innovative ones.”We recognize that poverty eradication, changing unsustainable and promoting sustainable patterns of consumption and production, and protecting and managing the natural resource base of economic and social development are the overarching objectives of and essential requirements for sustainable development.” The Future We Want, Rio+20, 2012 Parallel to the establishing of a 10-YFP UNESCO has prepared a Global Action Program as a follow-up to the UN DESD. This Program also emphasizes the urgent need for holistic, values-based, practical education which stimulates systems thinking and social learning.

Among the issues which PERL has brought to the discourse on sustainable development has been that of the need to promote empathy, social learning, moderation and sharing. To do so, a more world-embracing vision is needed from institutions of higher education — a vision which encourages all students to be global citizens and to show in their daily lives how they contribute to a more just and sustainable world community. This is more easily said than done. PERL has encouraged the processes of social innovation and co-creating based on a cycle of social learning which involves reflection on values and practices, frank and open consultation amongst all relevant stakeholders, action, reflection on the actions taken, making adaptions, followed by a renewed cycle of consultation-action-reflection-adaption. PERL has also assisted in creating multi-stakeholder alliances and fora where new research and experience on these issues can be shared (SOURCE: PERL / UNITWIN WEBSITE)

Read more:

• UNESCO Chair (Hamar University Norway)

03 201608 August 2016

The Empire of Things – How We Became a World of Consumers (A must-read for everyone!)

Book Review (Amazon): What we consume has become a central-perhaps the central-feature of modern life. Our economies live or die by spending, we increasingly define ourselves by our possessions, and this ever-richer lifestyle has had an extraordinary impact on our planet. How have we come to live with so much stuff, and how has this changed the course of history?

In Empire of Things, Frank Trentmann unfolds the extraordinary story of our modern material world, from Renaissance Italy and late Ming China to today’s global economy. While consumption is often portrayed as a recent American export, this monumental and richly detailed account shows that it is in fact a truly international phenomenon with a much longer and more diverse history. Trentmann traces the influence of trade and empire on tastes, as formerly exotic goods like coffee, tobacco, Indian cotton and Chinese porcelain conquered the world, and explores the growing demand for home furnishings, fashionable clothes and convenience that transformed private and public life. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries brought department stores, credit cards and advertising, but also the rise of the ethical shopper, new generational identities and, eventually, the resurgence of the Asian consumer.

With an eye to the present and future, Frank Trentmann provides a long view on the global challenges of our relentless pursuit of more-from waste and debt to stress and inequality. A masterpiece of research and storytelling many years in the making, Empire of Things recounts the epic history of the goods that have seduced, enriched and unsettled our lives over the past six hundred years.

Read more:

• Empire of Things
• Frank Trentmann

12 201607 July 2016

Sustainable Development Goals Year 1 – A Consumers Impression (by Peter Daub, Consumer360Academy)

At the first ever conference about the progress of the Global Goals we heard all the stories and best practices during the Partnership Exchange at the United Nations in New York July 18. About 300 of the more than 2200 partner organizations followed the debates and the discussions about the essentials of working towards the SDG’s in the first year and the years ahead in the Agenda 2030.

“You are the actors” was the starting point of the day and of course we ourselves as individual consumers or citizens are the ones who are co-responsible for the future we want, Not only to ask better questions for best possible solutions but also change our daily habits towards more responsible lifestyles. Together with our consumer organizations and in dialogue with producers, trade, financing and governments as well.

Literacy and a common language are the basis for that dialogue and needs to be learned already at schools and universities but also in all kinds of projects and meetings around the world. Through internet and working with new business models all the best practices can be learned in the most efficient way.

Read more:

• Sustainable Development Goals Report 2016 (PDF, 8MB)

08 201604 April – June 2016

TRUE Brands – Transparent Responsible Unique Empathic

TRUE Brands was published in April in the Netherlands but soon also in English. A bestseller about a better world in the making! Mark van de Grift has written a masterpiece about all aspects of all stakeholders in the production, trade, pricing and consumption of products and services in a way we can all follow the processes and organizations involved.

Ralph Nader organized in May his groundbreaking 50 years of consumer advocacy and the road ahead. The 4 days “Breaking Through Power” congress was held in the Constitution Hall in Washington DC and followed livestream by The Real News Network, a tv station which is financed 100% by consumers / viewers.

Energy Globe Awards were announced in June for the winners in 177 countries worldwide – the most important prize for sustainability projects. End of this year the five world awards will be announced for projects about earth, water, air, fire, and youth.

Read more:

• TRUE Brands
• Ralph Nader Congress
• Energy Globe Awards

06 201601 January – March 2016

Paris Climate Conference COP 21

In december all countries of the world decided in Paris to work together in managing the climate change within 1.5 degrees raising of the average temperature. An euforic finish of years and years of conferencing debating and calculating! After twenty years of thinking and twenty years of talking the next twenty years will now be about working and implementing the new techniques and organizations to fulfill that promise.

In January and February two big events in the Netherlands were organized to discuss about the future of food. Bio1000 and Food Otherwise (Voedsel Anders) at Wageningen University with more than 900 people! About he quality of food, about true price and about more and more dialogue in the chain from farm to fork. About the essential steps towards agriculture as being part not of industry or technique but of nature itself. Organic and especially biodynamic agriculture have proved to be the most innovative road into the 21st century.

In March the whole world was watching all shifts in the geopolitical relations, war and peace, Europe in stress, and the United States where elections get more attention than ever in the world! Especially Bernie Sanders is favourite for the youth willing to participate for a better future.

This winter season showed us a lot of interesting startups since the implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals 2015-2030 in September in New York. More people than ever are now active to work on all options. The words “Yes We Can” are now heard around the world. Enough work to do, lots of problems ahead but the trend in motivating each other is now that by trial and error another world is possible!

Read more:

• United Nations Conference on Climate Change COP21
• Food Otherwise Conference 2016 (Voedsel Anders)
• True Price

12 201512 December 2015

Consumers International and the Sustainable Development Goals 2015 – 2030

“With the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the world takes an important step towards a more sustainable future. But the journey can be made so much easier with consumer protection as a companion”, writes Consumers International’s (CI) Director General Amanda Long (Blog September 23).

“The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals build on the work of the Millennium Development Goals, which focus on poverty eradication and fighting hunger, and will take a more inclusive, universal approach with the addition of new measures to reduce inequality, tackle climate change and environmental degradation, promote peace, prosperity and sustainable economic growth. With slightly less fanfare, but no less significance to consumer organisations, the revised UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection (UNGCP) are also expected to be adopted by this year’s UN General Assembly. Consumers International have been at the heart of this revision process, working with the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and Member States to ensure they are both stronger and more relevant to consumers in today’s global marketplace.

I strongly believe that much more should be made of this opportunity to link these two important global agendas. Consumers are at the heart of many of the issues dealt with in the UN SDGs and it will be a missed opportunity not to use the UN Guidelines to promote consumer welfare, sustainable consumption and the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. People’s ability to consume, the consumption choices available to them and whether they are treated fairly as consumers, fundamentally affects the quality of their lives and of the environment around them. The UN SDGs’ ambition is commendable, but to meet this ambition, everyone needs to be on board. Consumers are the largest constituency in the economy and should not be ignored.

Consumer protection provides a clear means to curb inequalities and to promote fairness, justice and environmental protection in an increasingly complex global economy. It ensures that people everywhere are treated fairly and with dignity in the marketplace, and have access to safe, healthy, sustainable products and services. This is particularly important for poor and vulnerable people who are often the most exploited. There is still time and opportunity. Once the UN SDGs are formally adopted, policy makers’ attention will turn to getting their message across to the public, and to developing ways to measure their progress.

The public will gain a greater understanding of the UN SDGs if their rights as consumers are protected and promoted through the UN SDGs. And a number of the UN SDGs will be achieved far more effectively by including the implementation of the UN Guidelines on Consumer Protection as an indicator to help measure progress towards the achievement of the UN SDGs. UNEP, the UN Environment Programme, also recognises the UNGCP’s value and is calling for the same indicator to monitor progress on the UN SDG on sustainable consumption and production. But the UNGCP’s impact covers far more than simply helping people buy the most sustainable option available.

The UN SDGs’ objectives to eradicate poverty, protect the planet and promote shared prosperity, fundamentally rely on how consumers think and act, and how their opportunities, choices and rights are protected – in the developed and developing world. The eight Millennium Development Goals made great progress in some areas, but fell short in others. The 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals need to draw on everybody and every policy, to stand any chance of achieving their objectives by 2030. Consumer protection is an essential partner for this journey. Let’s not miss this opportunity.”

Read more:

• UN Secretary General about SDG (PDF)
• Opening speech Amanda Long (PDF)
• World Congress program (PDF)
• www.consumersinternational.org

06 201511 November 2015

Sustainability Through the Eyes of Astronauts – Unique 3D Earth Theatre

This month a unique theatre was opened in the Netherlands! Looking to the Earth through the eyes of the astronauts of the International Space Station ISS. To experience the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals for our magnificent but also fragile planet! And explore the possibilities of new designs to save the climate and our future in the other exposition halls!

Read more:

• www.museumpleinlimburg.nl

12 201510 October 2015

Education for All – The UN Sustainable Development Goals 2015 – 2030

The greatest conference experience of the 21st century happened in New York September 25-27. All world leaders and all representatives of the most important companies, citizen- and consumerorganizations were there to launch the sustainable development goals and to discuss the first steps to make. An inspiring start for the future we want!

Read more:

• UN Sustainable Development Summit 2015

11 201509 September 2015

Citizens Income in Perspective

The newest book 101 Reasons for a Citizen’s Income offers a short, accessible introduction to the debate on a Citizen’s Income, showing how a universal, unconditional income for every citizen would solve problems facing the benefits system, tackle poverty, and improve social cohesion and economic efficiency. For anyone new to the subject, or who wants to introduce friends, colleagues or relatives to the idea, 101 Reasons for a Citizen’s Income is the book to open up debate around the topic. Drawing on arguments detailed in Money for everyone, it offers a convincing case for a Citizen’s Income and a much needed resource for all interested in the future of welfare (Policy Press).

Next year the Basic Income World Conference will be in Seoul, South Korea July 7-9, 2016. This year’s pre-conference in June was already very inspiring because of so many initiatives and laws in-the-making in so many countries. Next year it will become visible how the pilots have started in Finland, Switzerland, the Netherlands and perhaps even more countries. And how to interprete the first results and experiences.

Read more:

• Basic Income Earth Network BIEN
• Citizens Income

04 201508 August 2015

Education International puts free education high on summit agenda UN

When the governments of Ethiopia, Norway and the Republic of Korea joined UNESCO to discuss the Investment Case for Education at the Financing for Development Conference in Addis Ababa on 14 July, one important issue was absent from the conversation: free education. A side event was organised around the conclusions of both the World Education Forum in Incheon, Republic of Korea in May as well as this month’s Summit on Education for Development in Oslo Norway.

“Education is the most transformative source of any society. We need to assert education as the core of the new sustainable development goals, whether it is gender equality or skills.” Also on the panel was the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) stressing that more needs to be done to adequately finance education, including greater partnerships in advocacy because education needs its moment now. We have to step up our investment, adding that training is crucial; otherwise you end up with kids not learning if the teachers aren’t trained! Access to quality education is a basic human right. The conference created a realistic roadmap on how to finance the Sustainable Development Goals.

Commercialisation and privatisation in and of education will be at the heart of Education International’s agenda for the next four years as the organisation concluded a successful Seventh World Congress in Ottawa, Canada. It is a “threat that poses great harm to the greatest enterprise of our society: quality public education”, said EI’s President, Susan Hopgood in her closing remarks at the end of five days of debate, networking, and sharing of ideas and best practice. “We leave here united, ready to fight against the scourge of private enterprise in our classrooms.”If the new global Sustainable Development Goals are to succeed, EI must use its standing to ensure quality education for all finally becomes reality for every child, she said. Hopgood also praised the work of Education Support Personnel and called for investment in young educators.

Concluding her remarks, she said: “This congress was about values in the world. It was about union values, educator values, and societal values. We are here to make a better world.”

Read more:

• Education International

11 201507 July 2015

Democracy Rising – World Conference in Athens

CRESTON DAVIS, GLOBAL CENTER FOR ADVANCED STUDIES: “Boy, we couldn’t have planned the conference to be at a better time given the volatility of what’s happening here in Greece. But basically yes, after Syriza came to power here in January, my friend Maria Nikolakaki, a professor, and myself started to think, let’s put on a conference that deals with specific questions about democracy rising that is a kind of inspirational moment where you connect up the Occupy movements to things that happened in the Arab Spring to all over. And you start to bring together leading intellectuals, public intellectuals like Tarik Ali, to journalists, novelists, and even politicians from Podemos and Syriza.”

Read more:

• Democracy Rising (videos)

04 201506 June 2015

Economy360 – An Introduction to Consumer Governance

“As consumers we take all the decisions of the world! Who is going to work for us as farmer physician teacher architect or otherwise? So we don’t have to think about empowerment in the first place because we already decide in which direction a euro yen or dollar is starting a new round. Directly or indirectly via taxes savings or subsidies. So consumer education is all about conciousness. About learning how to make the best possible choices. And the best way to see the big picture and all the details of the complex world of economy is by looking through the windows of our twelve daily necessities of life. The easiest way to streamline all information for “consumer governance” (Our first text on the expertblog of the European website for schoolteachers).

Read more:

• ConsumerClassroom

08 201505 May 2015

Triodos Bank Annual Report 2014 – Focus on Impact

“Triodos Bank takes an unconventional approach to assessing impact. Numbers do matter of course, but they are not our starting point. It sounds counterintuitive because we often hear that conventional growth, graphs that go up, and rising numbers are good news to be celebrated. But this is not always true. For instance, if your bank is in the business of sustainable change, financing a single, innovative new business which will drive an entirely new sustainable industry could mean more impact than financing ten established businesses in a mature industry.” (Peter Blom, CEO)

Read more:

• Triodos Bank Annual Report 2014

03 201504 April 2015

Symposium and launch State of the World 2015

“We think we understand environmental damage: pollution, water scarcity, a warming world. But these problems are just the tip of the iceberg. Deeper issues include food insecurity, financial assets drained of value by environmental damage, and a rapid rise in diseases of animal origin. These and other problems are among the underreported consequences of an unsustainable global system.

In State of the World 2015, the flagship publication of The Worldwatch Institute, experts explore hidden threats to sustainability and how to address them. Eight key issues are addressed in depth, along with the central question of how we can develop resilience to these and other shocks. With the latest edition of State of The World, the authorities at Worldwatch bring to light challenges we can no longer afford to ignore.”

Read more:

• Worldwatch Institute

04 201503 March 2015

Unesco 70 years and the Unitwin chair for sustainable lifestyles

At the final conference of the Unesco Decade for Education for Sustainable Development in Nagoya Japan last November professor Victoria Thoresen was chair of a discussion panel. This month at the headquarters in Paris she received the UNESCO/UNITWIN chair for Sustainable Lifestyles for Hedmark University in Hamar Norway and launched the book Responsible Living – Concepts, Education and Future Perspectives.

At the conference of the International Federation of Home Economics later this month in Malta she gave a very inspiring presentation of what consumer education can be! Not only about responsible living as an individual but also as part of the whole world family we are all together as consumers and citizens as well! The essence of a holistic view to see what is everyone’s role on the stage called planet earth as focus point in the universe!

Read more:

• UNESCO – UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION
• UNITWIN – UNESCO CHAIRS PROGRAMME

08 201502 February 2015

A better world in the making – business governments and civil society working together

While revolutions are sometimes necessary for ending structures of the past, working towards a better world takes a little bit more time than seven days! Following the developments of the world and especially the world economy during the conferences in Davos Switzerland each year all parties have done a great job in starting up the great dialogue between all parties and about all issues! Especially important now because the United Nations will launch the new Sustainable Development Goals 2015-2025 this year.

Read more:

• World Economic Forum

11 201501 January 2015

Gene Sharp’s 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action

How to Start a Revolution is the inspiring movie about the ideas of how people can work towards societies of living together in the best possible harmony. Gene Sharp was nominated three times for the Nobelprize and worked lifelong on this research and published a small book of only 70 pages about the basic principles of nonviolent revolution: From Dictatorship to Democracy. It became a worldwide bestseller for all people that wanted to change towards taking own responsibility for their own life and freedom of choice, for their country and society as citizens, and for their participation in the worldeconomy as a whole as consumers.

One way or another, people are more and more active today in what Alvin Toffler already wrote in all his books The Third Wave, Future Shock, Powershift, Revolutionary Wealth and others about the changes in civilzation into the 21st century.

Read more:

• How to start a revolution (wikipedia)
• How to start a revolution (the movie)

08 201412 December 2014

The Future of Banking – Banking for the Future

Two important conferences in England and in the Netherlands about banking in the future and for the future. The financial crisis has triggered us all to think deeper about the real values presented by money. And to think further about the ways that banks can help streamlining the economic globalization towards prosperity for all. What about local currencies and crowdfunding and what about the worldwide sytems of banking and investing and the dialogue between consumers and producers as the new basis for financing in the 21st century?

Read more:

• Future oriented banking (pdf)
• Banking in values

04 201411 November 2014

DESD 2005 – 2014 Decade on Education for Sustainable Development (final conference)

In Nagoya Japan the UNESCO World Conference looked back to the decade for educating the next generation towards more knowledge about sustainable development. Coming to an end in looking back of what was achieved it was also a looking forward to the next decade to come! As we know the Millenium Development Goals will also be followed next year by the new UN Sustainable Development Goals 2015 – 2025.

Read more:

• About the conference
• About the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Goals SDG’s (Wikipedia update)

03 201410 October 2014

Rudolf Steiner Exposition: The Human Being in the Middle of the Universe

After travelling through many European cities the exposition about the life and work of Rudolf Steiner was now in the Netherlands in the Port of Rotterdam. Like this largest harbour in the world where people know what economics is all about, a special paper about what Rudolf Steiner said about the worldeconomy as science and as reality in 1919 already was sold out in the shortest time (fourty thousand). In those days he already saw the problems growing which we now see in the financial crisis. In the Economic Course for students he gave many basic insights for economic thinking which make clear many new insights, why’s and how’s.

In the same way that we saw a return of the ideas of John Maynard Keynes we experience more and more “hunger” for basic insights in worldeconomy (as we do in all areas of knowledge since consumers finally became more interested to take responsibity for a better world). As a scientist and as a philosopher Steiner gave many basic insights. Although he gave also many guidelines for practical use for agriculture, schoolteachers, medicare, arts, economics and society as a whole, etc etc etc it’s up to everyone and every organization themselves to think about all kinds of solutions which are most appropriate to circumstances and goals. (See for instance our own webportal Consumer360Academy as an initiative for exchange of insights and experiences about consumer-producer dialogue and consumer education in consumer governance!).

Read more:

• Worldeconomy – a vision towards the 21st century
• About Rudolf Steiner (Wikipedia)
• About the Goetheanum (section for social sciences)

03 201409 September 2014

International Conference on Consumer Research

In the German city of Bonn the first international conference about Consumer Research was organised. Although research is an always ongoing process it is also essential to meet each other from time to time to exchange insights and experiences. Bonn is also the city where the International Federation for Home Economics, the worldwide oldest association of teachers and researchers is housing.

Read more:

• ICCR International Conference on Consumer Research
• IFHE International Federation for Home Economics

06 201408 August 2014

Greenpeace ice-breaker – back from breaking the ice in an international conflict

The “Arctic Sunrise” and the whole crew came back to her home shipyard in Amsterdam! With tears in our eyes we watched the ship slowly entering the harbour of Amsterdam with some small boats escorting her and a loud hello from the ship and an even louder welcome from the quay! Director of Greenpeace International Kumi Naidoo gave a warm welcome speech for the crew who had broken the ice for the international talks about drilling oil in the Arctic Sea. A very important action because the whole world is asking to preserve the area as a part of the Earth where nature can help us solve our pollution- biodiversity- and climateproblems.

Read more:

• Greenpeace International

08 201407 July 2014

New Basics of Marketing

“We can’t think of another discipline that has evolved so quickly! New approaches are appearing every day!” (The New Basics of Marketing / Harvard Business Review / July-August 2014 / page 56.) Indeed the 21st century shows us in all directions that consumers are now active partners in almost all product/service chains. The economy of demand and supply has grown towards an economy of question and answer! Where we as consumers have to ask the best questions to get the best answers (the best possible products, services and advices)!

Read more:

• Harvard Business Review
• Consumers International

11 201406 June 2014

Capital, inequality and income

On top of all discussions about basic incomes, top salaries and the rising inequality between both this book appears about how capital works in the economy. Thomas Piketty not only wrote a masterpiece in economic science since Adam Smith, Karl Marx and Paul Samuelson but also in inspiring “storytelling”. A bestselling book worldwide in the financial world but also in a wide interested public which is now almost the whole civil society because of these discussions!

Read more:

• Thomas Piketty

03 201405 May 2014

State of the World 40 Years!

Worldwatch Institute in Washington celebrated 40 years with a symposium about the special issue of State of the World about Governing the world and sustainability:

“Citizens expect their governments to lead on sustainability. But from largely disappointing international conferences like Rio II to the U.S.’s failure to pass meaningful climate legislation, governments’ progress has been lackluster. That’s not to say leadership is absent; it just often comes from the bottom up rather than the top down. Action-on climate, species loss, inequity, and other sustainability crises-is being driven by local, people’s, women’s, and grassroots movements around the world, often in opposition to the agendas pursued by governments and big corporations.

These diverse efforts are the subject of the latest volume in the Worldwatch Institute’s highly regarded State of the World series. The 2014 edition, marking the Institute’s 40th anniversary, examines both barriers to responsible political and economic governance as well as gridlock-shattering new ideas. The authors analyze a variety of trends and proposals, including regional and local climate initiatives, the rise of benefit corporations and worker-owned firms, the need for energy democracy, the Internet’s impact on sustainability, and the importance of eco-literacy. A consistent thread throughout the book is that informed and engaged citizens are key to better governance.

The book is a clear-eyed yet ultimately optimistic assessment of citizens’ ability to govern for sustainability. By highlighting both obstacles and opportunities, State of the World 2014 shows how to effect change within and beyond the halls of government. This volume will be especially useful for policymakers, environmental nonprofits, students of environmental studies, sustainability, or economics-and citizens looking to jumpstart significant change around the world”.

Read more:

• Worldwatch Institute

08 201404 April 2014

First 3-year evaluation of the ISO 26000 Guidelines

The worldwide guidelines ISO 26000 for organizations working on more responsible ways of producing, fair trade and true price calculation have been evaluated after the first three years of experience. After consultation of all users the International Standard Organization in Geneva Switzerland decided that the guidelines will be confirmed for the next three years. There was great consensus that the guidelines give a good framework for dialogue with all stakeholders and further development of organizations.

The Global Reporting Initiative GRI in Amsterdam publishing the worldwide guidelines for accounting used by organizations working on a more responsible way also introduced the newest upgrade G4.

Because both organizations ISO and GRI are working on the same issues there is of course an ongoing dialogue about how to translate results of responsible and sustainable production in transparent annual reports. GRI also works closely together with IFRS the International Financial Reporting System, since ten years now the official guidelines for accounting and reporting for all companies worldwide registered at and financed via Wall Street and all the other global stock exchanges.

Read more:

• ISO 26000
• GRI Global Reporting Initiative
• IFRS International Financial Reporting System

January 2013 – March 2014

Text will be available soon (202303: Sorry! We never did!)

11 201209 September – December 2012

How much is enough? How much do we really need? A bestseller!

Robert Skidelsky who is the biographer of John Maynard Keynes and wrote – together with his son Edward – a highly interesting and bestselling book about the issue of quantity!

Ghandi once said “There is always enough for everyone’s needs but never enough for anyone’s greed”. This book is about that central question. How much is enough? What do we really need? How much time do we need to work to meet our consumption goals? What is quality of life? Limits to Growth – Natural or Moral? A wake-up call!

Ban ki Moon introduced the new website of the United Nations about education not only for all but also for education towards responsible citizenship.

And the Club of Rome celebrated 40 years after the worldwide bestseller Limits to Growth in 1972 and now published the book “2052”…… what can we expect for the next forty years?

Read more:

• Robert Skidilsky
• UN GlobalEducationFirst
• Club of Rome

04 201208 August 2012

Global Wellbeing – World Congress of Home Economics Teachers

In Melbourne 750 teachers and teacher trainers gathered to discuss home economics, consumer-education, sustainabilty and responsible lifestyles beyond Rio+20. The International Federation of Home Economics IFHE is the oldest organization working for more than hundred years already on awareness and research in home economics on schools worldwide.

Read more:

• IFHE Website
• IFHE Press Release
• IFHE Congress Program
• IFHE ISBN 978-1921513961 Home Economics – the next hundred years

July 2012

Rio+20 and beyond …

After Rio the Janeiro it is now up to all of us individually to work on realizing our commitments made before and during the conference and those yet to be chosen. Rio+20 accelerated consciousness around the world for all seven billion consumers. Which makes it easier to take better decisions. As a consumer, consumer organization, politician or producer. We’re living in a most inspiring time!

Read more:

• A most inspiring time! (1.44 min)
• More about ethical buying saving and financing.

11 201206 June 2012 (SEE ALSO MAY AND JULY)

Citizens on the move – Consumers of the future

Between over-enthousiasm and deepest critics lies the real road ahead in the 21st century. Looking at the final draft of the Rio+20 conference we can have mixed views and different emotions. Some said it was more than expected but less than hoped for but in the end it is what it is. The outcome of a long process where all parties were involved – and hopefully – evolved and became wiser!

The only way to understand human history is to compare it with the biography of the human being itself. Since we learned thinking in ancient Greece, living together through Roman laws, and working together since the Industrial Revolution we are now in the 21st century of “maturity” thinking discussing and deciding about our own future, the future WE want.

But in the same way as growing up we can’t expect all things happening in one day! And not everyone is growing as fast as the other. So we can indeed recognise cultural creatives as the ones who take the lead, citizens who are working on transitions in civil society and society as a whole, and “consumers-only” who are only consuming and not convinced yet to change their lifestyle.

But we ourselves 7.000.000.001 human beings are of course the real managers, as consumers (making choises, and paying ALL the bills), as citizens (arguing all the pro’s and con’s in politics and on the streets) and as cultural creatives (asking new questions, starting initiatives and evaluating progress). The future we want is in the making every day and we are of course lifelong learning as an individual. Society is the mirror we made/make ourselves and in which we can see our own biography.

The Rio+20 conference has given a huge impact worldwide on people’s thinking, motives and tools for change. Especially because of social media and press. Which gives a broader basis as a license-to-act for politicians, business and ngo’s as well. For helping implementing our Agenda 21 and more!

Read more:

• Rio+20 Conference website

May 2012

Ready for Rio+20 – Consumer Education in Responsible Living

Around the world almost everybody and every organization is thinking and talking already for a year or more about the event to come in Rio de Janeiro next month. The title “the future we want” has triggered everyone to prepare well what we are going to talk about and what we think that should be decided in a new worldwide social contract about a sustainable future.

In Rotterdam in the Netherlands we joined a big conference with 1300 people discussing in many workshops about almost every issue. Consumer/citizens and people of many different organizations listened and discussed about problems, possibilties, priorities and pioneering initiatives. A special keynote speaker was Crownprince William Alexander who is working on the worldwide problems of water, the expertise of the Dutch while living in the delta of the river Rhine. And one very interesting award-winning project is working on making prices more transparent and all inclusive so that people are better informed to take better decisions to buy or not to buy.

Especially young people at the conference gave a cry-out for more education about how to work towards a more sustainable future. As we know many organizations have already worked many years on education and is now really coming into a rapids this year.

Read more:

• United Nations Marrakech Process 2011-2020 (coordination worldwide)
• Partnership for Education and research about Responsible Living PERL (teacher trainers)
• International Federation of Home Economics IFHE (teachers)
• Consumers International (consumer education)
• The True Price Movement
• Conference Rotterdam+20 (dutch)

11 201204 April 2012

Beyond Economic Growth – Beyond GDP

Quality of life is a much wider perspective than quantity or economic growth only. All discussions about all crisis-situations we have in the world today are now more and more connected to the one single question about the meaning of life. What have we created so far, what are we doing now and what is the future we want? That’s the discussion worldwide now for the Rio+20 conference. The prime minister of Bhutan was at the UN to talk about an interesting way to look from Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to Gross National Happiness (GNH).

Read more:

• UN Interview Prime Minister of Bhutan

10 201201 January-March 2012

Words words words…

In February in the Amsterdam Tropical Museum the NCDO celebrated 40 years of Dutch international development. We heard interesting keynote speeches of Pascal Lamy of WTO and World Bank as a “follow-up” of the Christmas speech of HM Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands in December who was now listening. In January there was the yearly conference of the World Economic Forum in Davos where Klaus Schwab organized an interesting debate at the end about business and ethics. Also in the same month many people were gathering in Porto Alegre in Brasil on the World Social Forum. And this year the Council on Foreign Relations are celebrating their 90th anniversary as a think tank for US international diplomacy. Title of the first issue of Foreign Affairs this year is “Clash of Ideas in 90 Years”.

Read more:

• Speech Pascal Lamy (WTO) pdf
• Christmas Speech HM Queen Beatrix pdf
• NCDO
• WEF
• WSF
• CFR

04 201110 October – December 2011

First Graduates in Consumer Affairs

Interesting developments of all kinds this quarter of the year! The 80 regions around the world where business governments and education are working together in pilot areas for sustainability celebrated their first five years of expertise built. The first students finished the new EU masters for future managers of consumer organizations marketing or government. And a new series of travel guides for sustainability worldwide is expanding rapidly.

Read more:

• UN University / Regional Centres of Expertise
• EU Masters in Consumer Affairs
• Good & Green Guides

12 201107 July – September 2011

Occupy Wall Street – We are the 99% Consumers

Occupy Wall Street can be seen not as a heated debate but as a mature discussion between consumers. It’s all about what is called an un-reason-able division of common made wealth. And so the question about the quality of life. And therefore the ultimate cause of all problems about sustainability. Not only because the consumption of the 1% but the consumption of all of us, directly via our own expenses or indirectly via our taxes and pensions.

Read more:

• Occupy Wallstreet
• Adbusters Magazine
• On this website / Publications / About the Quality of Life (pdf)

09 201104 April – June 2011

From WTO to WFTO

This year also terrorism seems to come to a halt by the end of the Al Qaeda movement. But still it will be more and more important that responsibility is taken more seriously not only by governments and business but by us citizens as well to avoid problems get out of hand again in world relations. It was the WTO that was attacked because it was not fair enough, so we as consumers should really pay the real price to give the right answer!

Read more:

• World Trade Organization WTO
• World Fair Trade Organization WFTO

11 201101 January – March 2011

Spring at last

On the 17th of December last year an outrage began what is now called the Arab Spring (writing 2012), an uprising of the people against their dictatorial government. Later followed by Libya and Egypt and other countries. An historic development of consumer/citizen awareness and responsibility for real democracy.

Professor Yunus’ message from Bangladesh to Davos

Social Entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus, Managing Director of the Grameen Bank, sent a message from Bangladesh to World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2011 participants, promoting the cause of social business. Yunus drew a line between ?selfish business? that maximizes profit and ?social business? that focuses on other benefits such as development. The two can coexist, he said, but sharing norms and dreams means pushing a new image of humanity. Best known for his engagement in microcredit, Yunus received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 together with the Grameen Bank. Muhammad Yunus is on the Board of the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.

Read more:

• Video
• Schwab Foundation
• Quotes
• Davos 2011

08 201010 October – December 2010

Sustainable Banking 1980 – 2010

In the middle of the worldwide economic turbulence the Triodos Bank for sustainable banking celebrated their first 30 years in innovation. CEO Peter Blom was invited on many occasions to talk about how banking institutes can look to sustainability also when it is about their own functioning in the world. They are in the end the managers of the mirrors of worldtrade, the facilitators of the bookkeeping of the worldeconomy.

One of the first four founding fathers of Triodos Bank was Rudolf Mees, a banker himself as member of the board of ING Bank died at the age of 79 but not after giving a long and highly interesting lecture about banking as he saw it. It was for a big audience in the restaurant of the Triodos Bank, asking all of us to take over the threads he could not finish in this life anymore of which he knew he would only have a short time left. He was one of my bosses at ING Bank when I worked there as a financial product developer. After the Triodos Bank was founded in 1980 I started my research for what is now the Free Consumer Association. Read more: About Us (PD).

These months we were also writing together with 400 other people the follow-up report 2.0 of the UN Brundtland Report “Our Common Future” for the next 25 years, organised by prof Jan Jonker of Nijmegen University. And surprise surprise was the lecture in the heart of the scientific world at the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences in Amsterdam where prof Klaas van Egmond presented his book Sustainability – A Form of Civilization.

Read more:

• Triodos Bank
• Triodos Bank on Wall Street ?
• Our Common Future 2.0

11 201009 September 2010

The Whole World at Work – About the Millennium Development Goals in Progress

Always highly interesting to follow the United Nations “live” where 192 countries gathered this month to tell about what they are doing about the world problems in their own countries and how the MDG’s are in progress! Best speakers are always those who speak paperless: Poland about solidarity worldwide, Obama as the great mediator about that we (all) can! And the Netherlands as co-founders of globalization, EU and UN about renovation from old to new structures in international institutions.

Looking to the world as a whole is now much easier for everybody thanks to internet, but seeiing the big picture and all kinds of relations is only possible by our own imaginations of course! And even more important is to think about remarks that not only governments and NGO’s but also business must be involved, and most of all of course we ourselves as consumers! Because we are the ones that ask the questions, always pay the real price direct or indirect, and enjoy yes or no the quality of all products and services, the quality of life.

Videos

• USA about MDG’s: www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/2010/09/united-states-of-america-mdg-debate.html
• Poland about Solidarity: www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/2010/09/poland-mdg-debate.html
• Netherlands about UN: www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/2010/09/netherlands-general-debate-65th-session.html

11 201008 August 2010

Decade for a Culture of Peace 2001-2010

At the end of the UN Decade for a Culture of Peace now the final report is published by the project manager David Adams. From over 100 countries worldwide 1.054 organizations of which 147 international organizations gave their opinions about the past and the future, about problems and opportunities for a worldwide future of peace, sustainability, tolerance and solidarity.

Eight categories of organizations reported about their experiences and about their points of view. Education as the most important. Sustainability, Human Rights, Gender, Participative democracy, Understanding tolerance and solidarity, Freedom of information, Peace and security. The most interesting development mentioned in the report was the worldwide famous project of micro credits, the Grameen Bank of Yunus who gave the most powerful impuls towards a better world.

Read more

• www.decade-culture-of-peace.org
• Final Report 2010 – see PDF…

PS: We joined the country-conference which David Adams held in Amsterdam in 2005 together with thirty people of other dutch organizations. In the final report 2010 we give our opinion about the past and the future by mentioning our annual report and our publication “about the quality of life” (see international organizations / sustainability / vrije consumenten / free consumers or see our website).

11 201007 July 2010

Our Common Future 2.0 in the making

More than 400 people in the Netherlands have gathered to write an upgrade version of the famous Brundtland Report and to present it in 2012 exact 25 years after the first publication by the United Nations in 1987. Starting next month on the yearly “Sustainable Tuesday” in the old parliament building in The Hague on September 7 with a presentation to politicians and the public. This crowdsourcing project of twenty teams working on different themes everybody will spend two weeks of his/her time in the next three months for discussions and try to rewrite the report and make it fit for the 21st century.

Of course only the most exact scientific knowledge can show us the best possible roadmaps. And only the most humane institutions we build can help to build the most reasonable human relations. And so the best possible circumstances for our common future. We think!

Read more

• Brundtland Report 1.0 www.un-documents.net/wced-ocf.htm
• Brundtland Report 2.0 www.ourcommonfuture.nl

11 201006 June 2010

From the End of Poverty to Common Wealth

Jeffrey Sachs wrote a masterpiece again with a magnificent title! One word that can motivate everyone of us everywhere to go forward working for a better world possible! A title that invites us to go on even when one should disagree with parts of his book. In the 21th century thinking and talking is necessary, but trial & error is even more important!

Jeffrey D. Sachs is the director of The Earth Institute, professor of sustainable development at Columbia University. He is also special advisor to United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon. From 2002 to 2006, he was director of the UN Millennium Project on the Millennium Development Goals.

About the book: Drawing from his unexcelled experience and knowledge, Jeffrey D. Sachs has written a state of the world report of immediate and enormous practical value. Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet delivers what the title promises: a crystal-clear analysis, a synthesis, a reference work, a field manual, a guidebook, a forecast, and an executive summary of recommendations fundamental to human welfare. It says to those responsible for Earth’s 6.6 billion people: Just look at the numbers. The world has changed radically in the past several decades; it is going to change more, faster and faster. In spite of all we have accomplished through science and technology -indeed because of it – we will soon run out of margin. Now is the time to grasp exactly what is happening. The evidence is compelling: we need to redesign our social and economic policies before we wreck this planet. At stake is humankind’s one shot at a permanently bright future.

Read more:

ISBN 9780141026152

http://earthinstitute.columbia.edu

04 201005 May 2010

Worldwide introduction of consumer-education

Consumer-education in sustainable consumption has been introduced by the United Nations at the CSD-18 conference May 3-14 in New York. The Partnership for Education and Research about Responsible Living PERL led by the Hedmark University in Norway was represented by the project manager prof. Victoria Thoresen. PERL is the international group of teacher trainers that prepared the Guidelines for consumer education for primary and secundary schools and higher education.

In 2008 the United Nations already published a report about how journalists and the media can help to make sustainability more and more transparent for the public, for business and for politicians ……… and for educators and students.

Read more:

• Here and Now (PDF 14Mb)
• Brochure PERL (PDF)
• www.perlprojects.org
• www.unesco.org/en/esd
• Toolkit Journalism (PDF)

03 201004 April 2010

150 years Rudolf Steiner – The science must go on!

If we really want to know how to choose as consumers, we have to know the ‘inner quality’ of everything, of products, services and processes and the whole cosmos around in space and time and beyond those parameters. Therefore we need not only the natural sciences, but also the spiritual sciences. Since Einstein created the thought milieu that all phenomena are dependent on matter alone, Goethe already gave us the tools to discover the higher forms of research. Furthermore it is thanks to Rudolf Steiner that we can now understand how even the higher spiritual sciences have developed through human history until the present time. The science must go on! If we include natural science, however, there are seven steps to go. In the problems concerning the environment and climate, we can now experience a second stage of living processes al around us.

Just as the natural sciences made great progress since the sixteenth century, to discover how the various parts of the universe fit and work together, so did Goethe, during his journey through Italy how man can learn to see the unity of it all in minerals, plants (his idea of the ‘Urpflanze’), animals (characters) and human beings (the significance of biographies). To alchemists these were known as earth, water, air and fire; in modern chemistry they are known as the states : solid, liquid, gas and heat.

In this way we can understand that the physical sciences have their limits in the material world as such. As far as plants are concerned we can see that they have not merely a material process but also a ‘living’ process, not only gravitation as it were but also levitation. In the animal world, we can see that they have a material body, that they live by eating plants directly or indirectly, and have the capacity to walk freely, each sort with its specific character. The human being goes beyond all these characteristics with his possession of an inner spirit and the capacity to act with a high degree of freedom and to create his or her own biography. This process is comparable to a factory building with all its machines, tools and other component parts as materials, transport and production as the living process, and working schemes and organization as the ‘character ‘ as it were of the enterprise and finally human relations as the ‘spirit of enterprise’)

That Goethe was the great builder of the bridge between the natural sciences and the spiritual sciences was recognized by Rudolf Steiner, who did all the research to make transparent how the spiritual side is always the other side of the same ‘coin’ which we call reality. Using the factory again as an analogy: behind all the processes of a factory we can find the mission statement, the motivation. The question why we should we produce for specific consumers is a case of question and answer between human beings, in the encounter of freely (!) chosen goals in life, which we can call ‘new karma’. The further development of these higher degrees of research are called imagination, inspiration and intuition. In other words it is the world of imaginations, feelings and experiences, and furthermore of encounters with the other as an individual entity, … also when we talk of angels and beings of a higher order.

It was this month that Dick van Romunde died at the age of 96, who was a good friend and a great scientist, who taught us to take these steps in our own personal evolution.

Read more:

• Bounderies of Natural Science / Rudolf Steiner (PDF)
• Goethe’s Kennistheorie / Goethe / Rudolf Steiner (PDF)
• Projective Geometry / Olive Whicher
  Breathtaking book about the spiritual mathematics of the material worlds
  ISBN 978 0854402458 / reprint foreseen autumn 2010
• Formative Forces in Plants / Dick van Romunde
  ISBN 0 967 5056 1 5
• More literaturer: www.rsarchive.org / www.christofoor.nl
• Events: www.rudolf-Steiner-2011.com

11 201003 March 2010

Kennedy and the World Consumer Rights Day

It was president John F Kennedy who announced on March 15 1962 the Bill on Consumer Rights, giving the consumers and their newborn worldwide organization Consumers International (International Organization of Consumer Unions) some very important tools to become partners on the playing field of the world economy.

This year Consumer Rights Day was about “It’s OUR money!” pointing towards everyone who is working with money one way or another. But of course we ourselves are the first and most important players in the economy! Because every time we decide to buy or to finance something WE decide who is going to work for us as e farmer, teacher, politician or automaker, and a euro yen or dollar begins a new round!

So in one way or another …. we are also responsible for the whole process in the end! In the same way that a manager has responsibility for the whole factory, consumer governance is about the whole chain of production. Made visible in fair trade and all kinds of labelling. Made practical by all kinds of consumer associations, visitors days and dialogues every season and/or every annual meeting with producers and all other stakeholders.

Read more:

• Website Consumers International: www.consumersinternational.org
• Kennedy about Consumer Rights (pdf)
• 50 Years Consumers International (pdf)
• Strategy Planning 2007-2011 (pdf)
• Consumer Education / Here and Now (pdf)

12 201002 February 2010

How egoism turns into altruism

When we are taking care for our own life we are free but also egoistic by definition. When we take into account our family as well, then our egoism will have another “sound”. And when a king is fighting for his people, then egoism gets an even bigger scale and a sound of higher ideals! But when somebody feels him/herself responsible for humankind and the cosmos as a whole, egoism becomes altruism! In other words: freedom becomes freedom for all!

Thanks to globalization and internet we feel more and more like living in a big village, as one big family. Which – of course – we were already since Adam and Eve! Together with our ongoing insight that spirituality and materiality are two sides of the same coin we learned to look 360 degrees around to become world citizens AND cosmopolitans!

A better world in progress – looking talking and working 360

In the ongoing process we can also recognise the developments within the twelve different areas.

01 The upcoming talks between worldreligions starting 2011 in the UN Decade for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue. 02 The rise of art and especially social art as a tool for more dialogue and thinking in solutions instead of problems only. 03 Science on a turning point from materialistic towards wholistic thinking.

04 Education for a free individual development for everybody as UN Millennium Development Goal. 05 Medicare, clean water and hygiene worldwide. 06 Food, biological agriculture and biodiversity becoming mainstream, INCLUDING the buzz of living bees if we are not too late!

07 Housing and architecture show more experiments and “organic” style according to more creativity of the people living in it. 08 Financial restructuring of institutions making money a mirror of reality instead of virtuality. 09 Traveling from tourism to connecting people and projects.

10 Communication from small talk towards international conferencing and sharing knowledge. 11 Human/consumer rights, fair trade and democratization towards direct dialogues. 12 Associations from sporting clubs and small talks towards highly professional consumer organizations.

Consumer governance in progress

Those who take the final decisions are the consumers of course! WE make choices every day who is going to work for us as farmer, physician, teacher for our children, architect, government, artist or scientist! And WE pay the bills. So WE are the stakeholders and the stockowners. And our household booklet is the mirror of our piece of a better world in progress!!!

Read more:

Manager360
housekeeping book in 12 columns

Click here to read this Excel file…

12 201001 January 2010

Rethink, Redesign, Rebuild – Another World is Possible

The first three words are the title of the annual conference of the World Economic Forum this month in Davos Switzerland. The World Social Forum (Another World is Possible) is organising dialogues this whole year around the world on many platforms. And the Worldwatch Institute published their annual State of the World 2010 with the title “From Consumerism to Sustainability”. After a century of lessons learned and homework done now the exams can begin!

Read more:

• www.weforum.org
• www.worldsocialforum.org
• www.worldwatch.org
• World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2010 (PDF)

11 200912 December 2009

Keynes and the issue of labour and income

Keynes is in the picture again worldwide! John Maynard Keynes already indicated in 1929 that our necessities of life, at least the basic ones are always there whatever crisis occurs! If you don’t have the opportunity to buy them, life is coming to an end and so the economy! The process of producing and consuming has to go on, and so the system of financial registration of wealth and the division of it has to be well organized! Keynes indicated that government should spend more when the economy goes downward. In fact he says that we have to take care for enough buying prower. But why not complete social security – or even better – the whole incomedivision system for everybody in the world?

How much is enough?
(Keynes’ biographer Robert Skidelsky in November 2009)

The economic downturn has produced a wider critique of “growthmanship” – the pursuit of economic growth or the accumulation of wealth at all costs, regardless of the damage it may do to the earth’s environment or to shared values. John Maynard Keynes addressed this issue in 1930, in his little essay “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren.” Keynes predicted that in 100 years – that is, by 2030 – growth in the developed world would, in effect, have stopped, because people would “have enough” to lead the “good life.” Hours of paid work would fall to three a day – a 15-hour week.

Read more:

• Keynes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Maynard_Keynes
• Keynes’ biographer www.skidelskyr.com/books

09 200911 November 2009

From Adam Smith to WFTO – fair trade as the key to a sustainable world

All players in the field are now moving towards a new worldeconomy where transparency, dialogue and fair pricing will be the basis for more wealth AND more wellness. That’s what Adam Smith really meant: free trade for the benefit of ALL.. And money as the most transparant means to registrate. Where the (world)economy is the playing ground for the division of labour to get the 1+1=3 effect. Where we are consumers AND producers at different moments of the week or in different places on the world.

Especially in the role of consumers we have the biggest responsibility because we are the ones who ask the questions or give the mandate or the command for a product or service. And do the last check and pay the bill. Of course we did that already since thousands of years, only became conscious of that since we entered the 21st century.

Read more:

• Wealth of Nations / Adam Smith www.adamsmith.org/smith/won-intro.htm
• Wealth and Poverty of Nations / David Landes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_and_Poverty_of_Nations
• World Fair Trade Organization / WFTO www.wfto.com
• About the Quality of Life / Peter Daub PDF (klik hier…)

04 200910 October 2009

Life(s)long learning…

Consumer education is now introduced by Consumers International to governments worldwide for implementing in school curriculums, the place where all our knowledge of economy starts! And although this website about twelve necessities of life gives a good overview, in reality every situation is of course a complex of many issues and many many people involved. That’s the reason why the artist Joseph Beuys gives it the name “Soziale Kunst” (social art), why Schiller is writing about “Spieltrieb” (playground) and about the ethical education of mankind, and why Shakespeare says: “The whole world’s a stage and every human being a merely player”.

Where we as human beings are looking to the world of organizations around us in a threefold way (with head, heart and hands): to the world of culture (religion/art/science/education/ communication), the world of human relations (human rights/consumer rights/justice/politics and international relations), and the world of the economy (all activities where we create all our wealth together with all the other people of the world), it is in the economical aspects where things become most concrete until and including the financial bookkeeping of it all.

And to keep in touch with the big picture while acting in every single daily situation (“think globally-act locally”), it is easy to recognize that we all play our “roles” in that polarity created to gain more efficiency as consumer and/or producer (or trader or banker in between to connect those two). And that the main issue is quality of products/services as the basis for the quality of our life.

And according to Shakespeare we can have a feeling of friendship towards each other in recognizing each others role rather than thinking about the struggle for life and looking for lowest prices only! Dialogue and subscription are the best tools for bridging this gap plus a meeting or an annual report each year to evaluate the relation.

For our own lifelong learning process it can be very handy to registrate (only) our most interesting information, meetings and monthly payments on an A4 sheet with twelve columns or on the rear side of a matchbox. That’s what managers do, that’s the most simple basis for lifelong learning in consumer governance!

12 200909 September 2009

kabbala – macrokosmos microkosmos
Robert Rotar 1926-1999

Blueprints and Roadmaps. Darwin, Buber and Steiner about the big picture.

Everyone’s own blueprint is the inner motivation for everyone’s own biography! That’s what the philosopher Martin Buber is telling us about the development of the human individuality. But what about mankind? What is interesting to know about our common history, our common problems now, and especially our common future yet to be created? That’s the most interesting question now in the year of the philosopher Charles Darwin, at the beginning of the 21st century where we all turned into the age of maturity!

Darwin simply thinks that it is a matter of struggle for life only and then hope for the best. The philosopher Rudolf Steiner was not satisfied until he found out that the human being is able to see his/her own biography through former lives on earth. And to understand how the blueprints and the roadmaps of all people are forming a big picture which is quite similar to the individual biography. In a nutshell: humankind has entered the 21st century! We all can experience now that we are stepping into maturity, that we are also talking within organizations more mature than ever before, and we can observe that globalization is a living process of human relations itself!

Looking into the reality of history and the developments today we can feel a beginning of understanding that the human being has all the creative power to unfold his/her own “blueprint” via all possible “roadmaps”! We’re free to choose! But the same is also relevant for everyone else and even for humankind as a whole including the whole nature and cosmos. Because we all live in the same house, in the same infinite but nevertheless common place called cosmos. And so we also have to talk about responsibility. In cultural, social and economical sense we have to find out how we can shape together the best world possible.

And for those who love mathematics: “the proof is in the pudding”! If astronomers found out that the solar system itself is in a continuous spiral on its way towards the stars of Hercules. When it is possible to see our own (world) biography in the Akasha Chronicle which is likely to be that same spiral. And when we recognize spirals in flowing water, structures of trees, and our own DNA, then we can also understand WHY all the roadmaps of our lives are spirals as well! Always swinging between left and right, lighter and darker times, sometimes backward, but most of the time forward! We can proof this by looking back: the problems of today we couldn’t solve ten years ago, so we are growing every day, also humankind as a whole! The old game of mother Goose on a board with 63 steps (9×7) shows the biography of the individual and of humankind. That’s the bigger picture!

Read more:

• www.de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Rotar
• www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin
• www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Buber
• www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Steiner
• www.rsarchive.org

06 200908 August 2009

From Theory to Praxis! Trial and Error towards Good Governance

Thinking and talking are over, try-outs and start-ups in all possible directions are now filling up the news! Good governance in the making: for consumers and civil society, producers, professionals in marketing and trade, bankers, politicians and all their organizations as well! Fair Trade changed their name into World Fair Trade Organization WFTO, an important step to be better recognised on a worldwide scale! Teacher-training in Consumer Education will be financed for the next three years, by the EU/Brussels, the Ministry for Education in Norway and many others. The Consumer Citizen Network based at Hedmark University in Hamar, Norway, is from now on called: the Partnership for Education and Research in Responsible Living: PERL. Our organization is very glad to be one of the more than hundred partners again!

The UN Food and Agricultural Organization FAO in Rome have released their report, announcing that biological agriculture is efficient to feed the world. In the Netherlands the book Gaia Logica was released about the basics of sustainability by professor Kees Zoeteman. It describes all the “layers” of the biosphere we’re living in, in time and in space, based on the oldest and most modern knowledge of mankind. Wouter van Dieren, member of the Club of Rome, says it already in his foreword: after Fridjof Capra’s Tao of Physica this book will be a worldwide bestseller

11 200907 July 2009

Globalization is recognizing the threefold character of the human being
Nicanor Perlas for President in the Philippines

In the second sentence of the US Declaration of Independence of 1776 it is called: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. In the French Revolution we hear the words Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, recognizing our freedom in cultural life, equality among each other in all aspects of human (and consumer) rights, and fraternity where we are working together in the economy, which is global per definition. This month it has been 220 years that the French Revolution of 1789 took place; in France and in many other countries “Quatorze Juillet” was celebrated.

In the Philippines Nicanor Perlas announced this month to run for President in 2010, due to many people who asked him to. He believes that now it is the time for good governance to tackle cultural, political and economical problems in a globalizing world whereever possible. Because of his lifelong research and experience in the threefold character of the human being and the human society, he will certainly give a big push towards innovative thinking in globalization! Nicanor Perlas may inspire us to be creative in the shaping of our cultural life, as a citizen and as a consumer, as a politician or as a producer in the 21st century!

Biography (publications)

Perlas has written over 300 articles and monographs including an international best selling book, Shaping Globalization: Civil Society, Cultural Power, and Threefolding, translated in over 9 languages. (English ISBN 9789719223306) He was technical writer of the Philippine Agenda 21, the official government blueprint for sustainable development in the Philippines as well as technical writer of Sustainable Integrated Area Development (SIAD), A Framework for the Localiation of Philippine Agenda 21. Both were written for the Presidential Council for Sustainable Development.top.

Nicanor Perlas also has been a resource Person and keynote speaker in over 70 global conferences and 130 national conferences on a range of cs including culture and societal transformation, integral sustainable development, globalization, technology, corporate social responsibility, science and spirituality, second scientific revolution, multiple intelligence, safe energy, good governance, global warming, social threefolding, strategic microfinance, direct democracy and many other topics.

Perlas has been consultant and adviser to UN agencies, Philippine official delegations to the United Nations, government and donor agencies, and civil society organizations including colleges and universities in the area of human development, organizational transformation, appreciative inquiry, integral sustainable development, civil society, multiple intelligence and other areas of work.

Read more:

www.nicanor-perlas.com

01 200906 June 2009

Dalai Lama in Amsterdam:
About the Power of Compassion in Turbulent Times

His Holiness said that man is a social animal, with a need for interaction with others. The economic crisis and environmental problems affects us all and creates interdependence and the need for a compassionate society. His Holiness said that he speaks as just one human among six billion and gains a personal benefit from a peaceful world. A more self-centered attitude is unrealistic in a modern, connected society.

His Holiness explained that although the health of the world in the early years of the new century was poor, he viewed the overall development as positive. The Berlin Wall was removed through a popular movement rather than violent upheaval and in general there were signs that the world had the capacity to grow closer together. He acknowledged that while not enough was being done to address environmental problems, the awareness of the problems was, in itself, a positive sign since this was a relatively recent phenomenon.

However, to end global violence there must be an end to violence at the local and individual level. Many people may feel that the idea of ‘world peace’ was too big for anyone to effect. His Holiness felt that the practical approach is to start with the inner peace of the individual, progressing through the family to the community and beyond.

Far beyond our expectations his speech developed into a historical and situational 360-degrees overview, directed to all of us as consumers or producers, as citizens or as politicians. He suggested how to work harder towards a better world and thus, motivated by our compassion for all of our fellow human beings, help solve all existing problems.

Read more:

DVD: www.auditorium-netzwerk.de

01 200905 May 2009

News in the making…

There’s a lot of news in the making worldwide! While everybody is doing now his/her “homework” we may hope for interesting plans when schools start again in september!

The UN Decade of Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue DIID 2011-2020 or the coordination in the research about the vanishing of the bees, or consumereducation starting in september by Consumers International and Unesco, or the restructuring of finance and banking, or even the end of materialism let’s call it “Darwin and beyond”, or what about Europe where citizens can learn to become worldcitizens ….. !

Life is an interesting challenge Hemingway would say!

11 200904 April 2009

Rethinking Society – what’s new(s)?

As the civil society organization Civicus celebrates 16 years of being in action next month for a better balance between civil society state and private organizations (cultural life, political life and economy) it seems good to think about the basics of life, the principles on which the cosmos the society and the human beings are built. For we are now in the middle of a time of rethinking society and all its institutions, thanks to the financial crisis which ignited it …….

As human beings we all have our head heart and hands as our tools for thinking feeling and willing, or as the manager calls it planning organizing and realization. In a household we call that “make a list, go shopping, and purchase the goods and services you find the best choice!”.In a wider perpective we see that also in the world as a whole: in the cultural political and economical sectors of society, where we can recognise ourselves as cultural creatives, as citizens and as consumers.

And that’s exactly where the French revolution mentioned the three laws of society that the great philosopher Rousseau meant: liberty equality and fraternity. Liberty in our thoughts, science, arts and religion, in education and communication. Equality in everything what has to do with our social relations in human rights, politics and international relations including our human right for a reasonable part of all the wealth of knowledge, civil participation, and a reasonable income. And brotherhood / working together in all aspects of economical life.

It is obvious that a (world)society of human beings has the same organization as the human being himself, isn’t it? An interesting example we can find in the decision already made in the 12th century in Paris to build the Sorbonne University on the left bank of the Seine (Rive gauche), all the economical activities on the right bank (Rive droite), and …. the Court of Justice in the middle on the island (Isle the la Cite)! But to understand exactly how we are positioned in the cosmos we have to look in our vertical line where we are in the polarity of the infinite cosmos and the small island called Earth. In the spiritual world with our head, in the human world with our heart (more specific heart and lungs, our rhytmic system), and in the material world beneath with our hands and feet.

So far so good and nothing new! Old stuff for everyone who has an open eye for the world around.But the inner qualities of society are even more interesting! When liberty equality and brotherhood are working in the other sections of society (or organization). For instance when equality reigns in religion, or when too much liberty is given to economical life as we see now in the crisis of capitalism … In the same way that our head heart and hands are working together as a harmony of three specialized instruments, so has to do society and its institutions. So we have to rethink a few things! And to discover and recognise the inner qualities of society … THAT’S NEW(S)!

Read more:

• Threefolding (Wikipedia) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Threefolding
• Threefolding Network www.sozialimpulse.de
• Social Future (Rudolf Steiner) www.rsarchive.org/SocialIssues/SocFut_index.html

04 200903 March 2009

United Nations Decade for Consumer Education 2005 – 2014

More than 700 educators and scientists gathered in Bonn Germany March 31 – April 2 for a look backward and forward in the UN Decade for Education in Sustainable Development DESD 2005-2014. On the website of Consumers International we could already read the article “Here and Now” of professor Victoria Thoresen, coordinator of the Consumer Citizen Network CCN indicating that all teacher training guides are now ready to introduce consumer education in all primary and secondary schools worldwide. One hour a week to be integrated in lessons about social society and/or home economics.

Together with almost 200 teacher-trainers, scientists and consumer organizations of the Consumer Citizen Network CCN we had a conference at the Technical University in Berlin a week earlier for the “finishing touch” of six yeats of research and preparation of those teacher-training guidelines and all other aspects of consumer education. In the next three years all CCN partners will continue as consultants for implementing and further development of training programs, video’s etc etc under the new name PERL / Partnership for Education and Research about Responsible Living 2009 – 2012.

Read more:

• www.un.org/desd
• www.hihm.no/concit
• www.consumersinternational.org

03 200902 February 2009

Big Bang or creativity?

“In the Beginning there was Nothing ……. and even that exploded!” This was one of the many many marvellous humorfull one-liners of “Loesje” (Little Louise) this year, a famous Dutch group of journalists organizing all kinds of workshops in writing imaginative and inspiring to-the-point short texts. Already for 25 years now and also international! Another one was meant for politicians but can also be used for all kinds of discussions and even conflicting situations: “Pardon me! You’re standing on my standing point!” (point of view). Practical humor for everyday situations but also for bringing profound scientific and philosophical discussions into a current.

Especially now in the year of the famous scientist Darwin it is becoming more and more apparent that evolution is reality, but only understandable if seen as the mirror of a creative process. In the same way for instannce that there is first a manager or CEO with a plan and a blueprint evoluating into an organization and a factory building with machines and tools and a lot of other stuff ……… and not vice versa! Then only then we can get acces to the idea that Creation AND Evolution are two sides of the same coin. As we can also recognise in our everyday thinking arguing and acting.

(PS for scientists and non-scientists: mathematically the idea of the Big Bang is theoretically correct of course when we recognise the creation of all matter as an inward spiraling process for a certain time to a certain mathematical point, now outward spiraling from that same mathematical point. In the same way we can see in a Nautilus shell or at CERN in Geneva where they photograph atomic processes. So first “breathing in”, now “breathing out” …….. as we also can read in the old Kabbala “matter is concentrated light” ….. now resurrecting again in consciousness, transparency, science, knowledge! Even all esoteric knowledge of all kinds of organizations became exoteric/public since the twentieth century!)

Read more:

• From Sphinx to Christ – An occult history / Edouard Schuré
• Harper Collins 1982 / ISBN 9780060671242

02 200901 January 2009

I like America and America likes me
Joseph Beuys / Coyote New York 1974

We are the revolution! Everybody is an artist!

This month the great exposition “WE are the Revolution” of the greatest 20th century artist Joseph Beuys came to an end. Visitors from all over the world came to Berlin to meet the inner world of the cultural creatives, where the other half of the world still believes this year with Darwin that all reality is build up not by action but by accident!

Comment of a visitor from Paris, where after America the great Revolution took place in 1789: “It seems to me that there is no better time than the present for a major Beuys retrospective. His art was a reaction to the excesses of conspicuous consumption that dominated Western Culture. The contrast provided by the Jeff Koons (ghost of Walt Disney) exhibition could not be more appropriate. His giant artless creations are a product of and footnote to the end of an epoch”.

International Herald Tribune January 12 / Posted by: Bernard, Paris France.

Professor Joseph Beuys’ most important work was to teach that we have to be creative ourselves, to use our freedom to create a world of transparency, democracy and sustainability. To research how the economy works, how mind and matter are two sides of every creative process, and how we can discover all the laws of the natural and social and spiritual worlds to make the best of all social sculptures i.e. organizations for living together on the same planet. He called it “Soziale Plastik” and used all kinds of materials to educate in the basic artistic laws of light, warmth and force as stepstones not only in chemistry but also in social reality. And especially now where the whole world is thinking about new ways in financing, foodsupply, sustainability etc etc all creativity is needed to find the best ways forward.

There were also two great conferences in Belgium this month about consuming and economic growth. In Antwerpen about the Turning Point (Omslag) and in Brussels about “Beyond GDP” talking about new ways of measuring the quality of life. Especially the way they try to do so in the small Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is interesting where they call it the Gross National Happiness to be measured (as far as quality can be measured).

Of course happiness is in the first place the way we manage to be creative in creating our own life. Secondly how we respect each other to be able to do so (a reasonable income is a right). And third how far we reach to do so in a sustainable way and with a high quality of life. Then “WE are the revolution” is exact the right description of the human being entering the 21st century of maturity.

And when in former centuries they were able to call us brave new apes, dummies or marketing-targets, from now on we are all co-creators! Every year listening to each other, talking and planning at the World Social Forum, this month in the middle of the Amazon area between all the other species and all newly dicovered apes: in the city of Belem. Another World IS Possible. But only when we as consumer/citizens ask the right questions we can expect to get the right products and the right services!

Read more:

• OECD Beyond GDP / Paradiso conference 2009, click here… (PDF)
• Bhutan measuring Gross National Happiness, click here… (PDF 16Mb)

11 200812 December 2008

United Nations 60 Years: from Human Rights to Consumer Rights

The Declaration of the Human Rights in 1948 was the first time in the history of mankind to write down ourselves the basic rules for living together, for a “social contract” Rules which the philosopher Rousseau, kings, priests and god himself did before us! Rules that now are also the basis for all kinds of discussions in parliaments, corporate governance and …consumer laws.

After the consumer advocate Ralph Nader declared US cars “Unsafe at any Speed” consumer laws came into a current worldwide. Although the US and especially the state of California have a comprehensive system of consumer laws, the European commission for Consumer Affairs has developed a structure connecting laws of 27 countries. Plus an online educational program called Dolceta and a Europa Diary for all schoolchildren. So there’s only one more step to go for a worldwide handbook and education …

Read more:

www.ec.europa.eu/consumers

• Consumer360 Annual Report, click here…
• Consumer360 Outlook 2009, click here…

11 200811 November 2008

The whole world at the kitchentable!

Barack Obama as one of the most important new Coordinating Executive Officers in a globalizing world! Since more and more people are talking at the “kitchentable” called internet we are now in a world where everybody is learning to be a worldleader him/herself (…… for 1 / 6.000.000.000 part). And Obama could well be a very good coordinator because he lived in different countries and shows to be interested in the people not only as voters but as future clients!

Perhaps he already read the book The IBM Way, how they became one of the most excellent companies in the world by listening to clients first. They called it “business on demand” foreseeing already that the 21st century would be the beginning of an economy of question and answer. Interesting is also how people act and react worldwide! People see each other more and more as citizen, as consumer, but also …. as friend and colleague in solving world problems together. The whole world at the kitchentable!

Read more:

Example of a kitchen-question, see this pdf…

12 200810 October 2008

Homework to do … And The Buss About Bees …

There’s a lot of homework to be done by everybody and all organizations worldwide! The new standards for Corporate Social Responsibility ISO 26000 are discussed in Santiago (Chili) and will be published in 2010. UN/UNEP and Global Reporting Initiative GRI are working together about new guidelines for financial institutions and climatechange. The debates for the next 4 years of US policy will start next month and be revealed in the State of the Union in January 2009 which in this globalizing world will still be an important indicator of the direction the world will sail, although… the whole world is now on board ship !!!

Consumer organizations discussed at the OECD conference in Paris this month about consumer education. Consumers International in London welcomed their new Director General Mr Joost Martens, bringing a lot of experience from all corners of the world during his work for Oxfam. The European consumers organization BEUC in Brussels started with masterclasses for professionalizing staffmembers of consumer associations in media presentation, lobbying, consumer law, and management.. For all participants (including us) also a great challenge to go for more international networking to exchange experiences!

In the greatest workshop of all called “world” we see debates become more and more dialogues! But if it is biofuel versus food, solar versus nuclear energy, or biodiversity versus gmo, dialogues are going towards the bottom of the problems towards full transparancy! And thanks to internet, thanks to modern journalists as moderators, and thanks to consumers/citizens working in civil society organizations all discussion have become worldwide discussions! Also the discussion about the bees…

The Buzz about Bees …

Even de problem about the vanishing bees (30-70%) in the western industrialised world called colonial collapse disorder CCD was on CNN television this month! And even Prince Charles is fighting for their survival in a worldwide action to save the bees from GMO crops, see www.mellifera.de . In the same way that agriculture had to turn into an efficient but now also more organic and dynamic direction – or let’s call it allround – agriculture in this 21st century, also the beekeepers have to upgrade their working methods and not use their honey-bees as working bees alone anymore! Because organic beekeepers don’t have these problems! Their bees have a stronger immunity against diseases because they can live their own lives (more natural materials, normal distance between honeycombs, etc) and be as almost as productive. See also the website of organic consumers in the USA www.organicconsumers.org/bees. As consumers we should therefore ask more and more for honey delivered by bees kept on a more natural way, called organic honey. And pay the right price for the work that bees and beekeepers do for us! It is now or never to bee or not to bee! Also for our own survival because our agriculture is depending on their buzzzzzzy work! See article below.

Mellifera e.V. – Centre for Organic Beekeeping
Mellifera e.V. is an independent non-profit-making association. Since 1985 we have been pioneering and developing sustainable ecological concepts for beekeeping. With research projects, seminars and publicity Mellifera e.V. is heading the discussion on beekeeping matters including the care and management of colonies and dealing with illnesses. Our Centre is running the Fischermühle apiary with approx. 150 hives for research and training purposes. Mellifera e.V. introduces lay people to the fascinating world of bees, informs about their endangerment and makes sure there is a public political debate about the future of beekeeping.

Fascinating topics in the beekeeping center Fischermühle On a world-wide level apiculture is caught in an existential crisis the true proportions of which are covered up by drugs and the feeding of sugar. The causes are manyfold. Without measures of the beekeeper most bee colonies would be destined to die. In Germany wild bees do not survive any more. Many other pollinating insects are threatened or already extinct. Keeping bees has become a challenge, in many respects taking the beekeeper to his limits.

The conventional measures of the beekeeper are often a strain on the bees. Mellifera e.V. is interested in an appropriate way of keeping bees, not only in an organic approach to combating illnesses. We link holistic perspectives and working closely with the bees with practical concepts and scientific work. The Centre offers a place to meet for non-dogmatic exchange and professional further training. Mellifera e.V. works with a net of partner organisations caring for bees and other pollinating insects.

There is no way back to ’the good old times’. It is necessary for all social forces to work together on as large a scale as possible and to carry a common responsibility for the bees. You as an individual can also help. You are warmly invited to participate.

Read more:

• www.mellifera.de
• www.organicconsumers.org/bees.cfm

The Buzz About Bees
The breathtaking book of Jurgen Tautz / University Wurzburg / Germany / is now also available in English!

The Buzz about Bees / ISBN 978-3-540-78727 / $ 40,-

• www.bienenforschung.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de

08 200809 September 2008

Money makes the world go around…

But how about the people on that fast spinning globe? Can we still hold each others hands and not fall? In 1994 the painting of Edvard Munch called The Cry was stolen from the museum in Oslo, seven years later in 2001 the twin towers in New York collapsed because of a terrorist attack and we heard all the cries in reality. And now again seven years later the crisis in the money system worldwide recording the outcries on the floors of all the stock exchanges….! An incarnation from a “spiritual vision” to a heartbreaking outcry of the world that globalization has to become a fair (world trade) playing field, to the financial crisis now which is a culmination of too much freedom for egoism. Where freedom belongs to our thoughts and culture, and where fairness belongs to our relations, personal national and international, for all our economical needs we need to work together to get the best results and not for our incomes alone.

All the results of our economy have to be redistributed again one way or another, for which we constructed all the social systems, taxes, subsidies, sponsoring, price discrimination, development aid untill remissions since the emancipation of people from old family ties in the centuries behind. However this building process is not ready yet and the results we can see now in the exploding and imploding incomes worldwide into the biggest polarity possible! That’s NOT realistic and NOT human, and even NOT efficient! Which is now also realised by most of the six billion consumer/citizens worldwide in a globalizing world more and more feeling to be one big family. Which in fact we are since Adam met his girlfriend Eve…

Interesting is the fact that this discussion was already underway since about two years! About basic incomes and top salaries many seminars and conferences were about looking for arguments and new ways to deal with the question of distribution of wealth. Even for the billions of poorest people at the “bottom of the piramid”. And parallel the cooperation of worldpopulation in the creation of (our own) wealth. At the conferences of the OECD in Brussels in november 2007 and the conference at the University of Tilburg in the Netherlands this issue was discussed under the title “Beyond GDP” (Gross Domestic Product is a measure of all production) or: from welfare to wellness, from quantity to quality, by calculating economic processes in a better and more sustainable way.

Because of the fact that consciousness is an irreversible process we may have high hopes for good solutions towards a better worldwide “social contract” in incomes and spendings, in work and wealth. See also our publications / about the quality of life (pdf)

12 200807 July / August 2008

Monitor / Outlook 

This month we give you our annual overview of all 12 areas of consumer governance so that you can “connect the dots” again between all activities of mankind. The consumer is living in a world where all products and services play a role in his/her daily life. So as a consumer we have to overlook the whole “theatre” to recognise all the different roles played by ourself and others as consumers, producers and all kinds of traders and moderators in between, AND the play as a whole!

Consumer360 Monitor
tendencies in the worldnews
Update July / August 2008

01 Religion

“From globalise to cosmosize” / understanding needs helicopterviews / From clash of civilizations to meet & greet / individuality and spirituality

Especially religion is an area where we ourselves as consumers have to be active in finding the roots of all spirituality! Find our own “lifelines” instead of listening alone (to our producers/moderators – priests, rabbi’s, imams, guru’s, sjamaan, Darwin, or even our best friend). Also Pope Benedictus in Colonia Germany already told the youth of the 21st century: “….it’s not any more about religion and faith in the old fashioned way, but from now on it’s all about ….. how credible are YOU?” From the old religions – through materialism of the past four, five centuries and secularisation nowadays – the human being is on its way to find his/her own free destiny! As individual, as citizen, as consumer. “Connecting the dots” with spirituality (again).

02 Art

Art from outside watching to inside activity / art as a tool in daily life / social relations / building organizations

Arts become more and more part of daily life itself. Jeder Mensch ein Kunstler – Every human being a (co-) creator (professor in modern art and especially social art Joseph Beuys always repeated). Worldwide all schools also recognised the arts as a training instrument for creativity more than making fine things alone! Even big organizations discovered that one day of painting, dancing or sculpting in clay can be a very profitable learning process for building better relations and better organizations. Transforming ideals into realities is an ever ongoing creative proces of trial and error, thinking – arguing – willing, not only when working on new products but also working on new relations, workprocesses, new laws, and all other issues concerning änother world “in the making”.

03 Science

Making the unvisible visible / from microscope and dna to visualizing through projective geometry, flowforms or cristallization / and further

The science must go on! For science in general we need new ways of research! The natural sciences have led us into the physical world. But for a real understanding of plants, animals and human beings we need the scientific fenomenologic methods that Goethe developed (Urpflanze or living principle for the world of all plants, Typus or character for the animals/groups, Biography for the individual human being). These researchmethods also form the bridge to the higher forms of science, looking into the spiritual worlds, by strengthening our thinking, feeling and willing (head/hart/hands) in imagination, inspiration and intuition. This was our comment on the website of the World Science Forum in Budapest 2005.

04 Education

Every child worldwide / from individual development to a better society / consumer education and lifelong learning

All kids to school according to Millenium Development Goals of the United Nations is in progress but will take longer than expected (81% – 87% from 1990 – 2004)
Since the turning point of the centuries also quality is more and more recognised in developing individual possibilities instead of training the old knowledge alone. See Rudolf Steiner, Montessori, Dalton and others. And last but not least life itself (consumer as autodidact) is a playing field for all kinds of learning and discovery! Lifelong learning not only for new jobs, not only for consumer education, but also as a discovery journey through infinity and eternity!

05 Medicare

Less patents for more medicins worldwide / clear water first

More than one Millenium Development Goal of the United Nations is focussed on health and healthcare. Developing conciousness that biological and local food-production is the first step for surviving and get on our feet here on earth, all kinds of medicare are neccesary first to survive the sicknesses of the past such as hunger, war and bad water supplies. More and more organizations, governments and producers are now working on new ways of a better distribution of healthcare and medicins worldwide. Using the wealth of nations for the health of nations. Globalisation of healthcare first, pay later…

06 Food

Biological food in the lift / gentech to be contained / new energy / restoring sustainability

Getting the whole world family sitting at the table and have a decent meal is the most important Millenium Development Goal of the UN. When we re-arrange incomes or only spend 3 percent of all our army budgets for this we can start eating and even not need to go to war anymore at all! The other 97 % we can use then for all kinds of other activities! The old economic principle of choosing between producing butter or bullets! And of course gentech is interesting for scientists and some medicare but not for food! Biological food is now in the lift, the EU has even started a promotion campaign! Now we can go “culinair” following the Eurotocques top-cooks!

Other issues underway are the discussions about gentech, about nanotechnology, about the honeybees, about the biofuel, climate and clear water. Agriculture, environment, energy and commodities are parts of nature as a whole. Solar energy and hydrogen are on the move, so we can hope to restore sustainability and climate in time. The new wave is Cradle2Cradle! New commodities as carbon can follow-up iron and aluminium. Nature itself in all aspects is in the centre of all discussions today!

07 Housing

Experiments experiments / organic architecture in the making / tangent lines and projective geometry as a tool

After so many styles of architecture through the ages we ended in the most materialistic form … the cube. The most non-spiritual mathematical structure of the salt cristall. represented in the Dead Sea! But it gave us the utmost freedom to think about sculpture, architecture, furniture and gardening. And today we’re really in the middle of experimenting and discovering how lines, structures, surfaces, colours and materials give us the finest views, feelings and inner forces to work and live! The turning point towards living (organic) architecture was made by Frank Loyd Wright and Herzberger. In the magnificent House on the Waterfalls the connection between living inside and nature outside is made visible and became a real experience! In the multi-cubic office building of Centraal Beheer Assurance Company in Apeldoorn Netherlands the architect Herzberger opened up all cubes to make relations possible between all people in the building. From container building to social networks! The beginning of using mathematical tangents not yet visible as in organic architecture, but already full-scale experience! The organic style today became worlwide fame with the ING Bank headquarters in Amsterdam (Bijlmer), built in a network of ten tower-structures which was also the most energy-efficient building in the wordld. This year it was chosen by the public as one of the most beautifull buildings.

08 Money

Sustainable investing / worldwide bookkeeping / one stocks-exchange and perhaps worldmoney in due time / wto and fair trade

Money is a mirror of all activities in society based on division of labour. To achieve more benefits for all we divide all our labour in specializations and exchange all the products and services again. The administration system is called money. When products or services are not available or not in time the value (price) changes to make exchange possible in the end. All other issues as international relations between countries, ethical labour, fair trade etc are manipulations or corrections on this process. The worldwide standard for financial reporting IFRS, a world currency in the making, the globalization of trade in the WTO discussions now, IMF and Central Banks together in Basel, and of course the Global Reporting Initiative GRI for good corporate governance will have the result that the world economy will become highly transparant and show us the real prices. New York and Amsterdam Stock Exchanges also merged last year, and Asia will follow in some years to make one worldmarket for stocks. About fair trade and the whole discussion about dividing the wealth between two dollar a day and ten million a year can then become fully transparant how to look at the colours of the spectrum in between and how to talk about the right for a REASONable income for everybody.

09 Travel

World is getting smaller every day / from tourism to ecotourism to private projects / Meet & Greet

When oil will be replaced by solar energy in H2O tanks (prognosed within ten years by Durch students of the University of Delft this summer who designed a hydrogen racing car) the travelling possibilities will be almost unlimited for everybody. Together with the internet people will be able to communicate and meet&greet by wire and tyre! And the oil can be used for other products, tires, asfalt and plastics, anti-noise walls can dissapear in the landscape to give a clear view on the horizons again, and with carbon cars the world can use steel for railways only. But who wants to go by train then?

10 Communication

Internet and mobile / citizen journalists / alternative newsmedia / multi media

Although talking one-to-one is the basis of communication and telepathy the long distance variant of it, internet is the main route for all our communication today. And beyond that it is a medium also for all written information and can be used as archive as well, plus all kinds of applications in technique, design and our daily work in all different aspects. But even further it became a “tool” voor everybody to become a citizen journalist, private researcher, a lifelong learning student, and a worldwide activist if neccesary. Research, surgery, spaceshuttles, warfare and the rise of democracy worlldwide, fair trade, world currency and financial reporting worldwide in the end. Communication has everything to do with exchange of information (systems) parallel to trade and travel and between people. But direct communication as writing and reading, travelling and talking will always be there as the basic communication route for ALL twelve sense-organs!

11 Law and politics

International diplomacy and crises mediation / participative democracy / europe as a test / proposals of citizens

Politics and diplomacy at work in the 21st century! No longer citizens are waiting for actions of actiongroups but rather start an action themselves via internet. Since 9/11 and the first three years after that where a kind of black&white thinking came up, people began to cooperate in all organizations more and more. The World Watch Institute spent the whole issue of their State of the World 2004 to the consumer/citizen! In 2005 the UN started with the Decade for Education in Sustainable Development DESD 2005-2014. The World Social Forum in Porto Alegre Brazil and the Economic World Forum in Davos Switzerland started up talking. And the systems of money, stocks, trade and financial reporting went globalizing too. Parallel to the cultural and economic globalization also political democratization went global. The EU referndum as an exemple, but also initiatives as PressNow to help papers, radio- and tv stations emerge in all countries, and last but not least the International Crisis Group that went into action to solve problems, moderate and start projects to prevent war. The same procedure in official governmental strategies is called 3D – defense- diplomacy – development.

12 Association

All kinds of human relations / consumer-trade-producer relations / consumerorganizations

Multimedia, forums, and finally choosing our own networking are the three steps in modern time to create all kinds of associations to reach our cultural, social or economical goals. In cultural and social life we know it since centuries that people come together. But consumer-trade-producer relations including the finance of projects is very new! The rise of all kinds of consumer associations is also the proof that mankind has entered maturity in the 21st century!

12 200806 June 2008

Another world in the making – Consumer, freedom and responsibility

The tone has changed! In all directions we can hear and see people taking action more and more! After all the thinking and talking conferences and workshops have now titles such as “from thinking to action” and alike. This year there is a clear tendency to DO things, even by trial and error. Although it still takes a lot of talking and writing, the “tone” and the “intentions” have changed significantly.

In the Netherlands for instance there was a concrete conference about tuning in all the different methods of medicare, we were visitor at a very constructive discussion in the Upper House about defense-diplomacy-development or 3D strategy in Afghanistan, we listened to the presentation at the SER (Social Economical Council) of their report about new ways of financing agriculture biodiversity and landscaping in the Netherlands and in Europe, listened to the speech of Alexander Rinnooy Kan about globalising and sustainability at the Club of Rome, and read the speech of the bee-keepers association in parliament about the crisis of the disappearing bees. But also the discussions about the FAO/WHO Codex Alimentarius about food-supplements etc became more “overheated” while approaching the implementation in 2009. And the teachers who were overheated by government-rules became now cooling down by taking over again the management of their own jobs.

Internationaly we see discussions more and more looking for pragmatic solutions, action, building bridges to go forward one way or another. In trade, in sustainabilty, in crisis management, in working together between countries and continents to build a global village. The introduction in 2005 of the International Finance Reporting System IFRS, the connecting of stock-exchanges and the Euro as a pioneer of a worldwide “greenback” in the making are signals as well.

And last but not least the Internet and the exchange of knowledge worldwide by open courseware for instance by the Massachustes Institute of Technology in Boston USA. Their website counts 80.000 pages free knowledge and even the possibility to be “in the classroom” via webcam! The MIT was also the University where Meadows and Forrester started the Club of Rome in 1971 and foresaw that globalising is a creative process which needs the responsibility of all of us 6 billion consumers to restore sustainabilty while (and sometimes before) going on! Cradle2Cradle sounds like a magic solution, but that will take time. But why not ask ourself daily: …. how sustainable am I?

Annual Report 2008 / Jan – May

Most important development in the world was the OECD conference in Paris “Beyond GDP” followed by a conference at the University of Tilburg in The Netherlands January 10 about the neccesary trend in thinking from Wellness to Well-being. If this is the breakthrough in our thinking then we can hope for another world! Because thinking about the quality of life – of ourself AND of all the others – is in fact our everyday starting-point in decision-making!

But even more urgent is of course the present foodcrisis! Although the development in the quality of food and organic foodproduction is booming, the quantity-problem is even getting worse! Hopefully the experience of world politics in problemsolving will be strong enough to overcome the foodcrisis! Especially now becomes visible that ……. “a reasonable income is a right” !

As Free Consumers Association we are now more and more active in workshops, seminars, and in innovative projects such as “professionalizing” consumer-trade-producer dialogue and of course the ongoing conferences on consumer education of the Consumer Citizen Network, this year in Tallinn Estonia.

Last but not least our english website is almost ready for readers worldwide!

Peter Daub
chairman

04 200805 May 2008

Fifth CCN International Conference on Consumer Education / Olympia Hotel, Tallinn Estonia

We were in Tallinn / Estonia 5-6 May for the fifth yearly conference of the Consumer Citizen Network CCN about consumer education to be implemented on schools worldwide in the coming years. The CCN is working together with the EU program for Lifelong Learning and the UN Decade for Education in Sustainable Development.

The Consumer Citizenship Network is an interdiciplinary network of educators, researchers and civil-society organisations, (including UNESCO, UNEP and Consumers International) who recognize the pressing need for constructive action by individuals in order to achieve sustainable consumption and global solidarity.

The Consumer Citizenship Network has, since 2003, developed interdiciplinary approaches to central issues dealing with the balance between material and non-material well-being and with how one can translate ethical values into everyday practice through concientious participation in the market. CCN2 also brings toghether expertise in the fields of citizenship-, enviromental- and consumer education to further develop research and good practice for teaching and assessing consumer citizenship education. The CCN is a Socrates Erasmus 3. Network consists of 133 institutions in 37 countries. www.hihm.no/concit.

08 200804 April 2008

One Idea – Two Awards: Subscriptions

A card for clients who are willing to pre-finance their part of the stock they are going to buy in the month ahead, is in the making for the whole organic branch in The Netherlands! Two shopowners with similar ideas became the Golden Pear Innovation Prize 2008. The Green Passage in Rotterdam and Buys&Ko in Wageningen had developed different but quite similar ideas.Together with the branch-organizations who gave the prize they will now develop it further to introduce the cardsystem nationwide.

08 200803 March 2008

Why Bank Ethically? Your money – Your choice

When most people think of a bank, they think of the organisation that keeps their money safe and secure until they need it. When most people decide who to bank with, they consider the rate of interest they will receive, the services they will benefit from and how easy will it be to access their money. What most people don’t think about is how that bank then invests their money when they’re not using it.

A bank’s core business is to use the money savers deposit, to lend it to someone else. With most banks you don’t know who’s using and benefiting from your savings. Instead the bank is in control of your money and decides who they will lend it to and what that money will be used for. But if you ask the bank what they’re doing with your money they won’t tell you.

A Transparent Bank

Triodos Bank is different. We only lend to organisations which create real social, environmental and cultural value such as charities, social businesses, community projects and environmental initiatives. Each one is a practical, well-grounded initiative dedicated to social aims which benefit the community, care for the environment, respect human freedom and develop individual talents and capacities. As part of our commitment to transparency we publish a Project List, which details all the activities that we finance in the UK and Ireland at the time of printing.

Positive or Negative

Many financial organisations, from high street banks to pension providers now offer funds and schemes where you can save and invest your money ethically, partly in response to the success that ethical pioneers including Triodos Bank have had. Most ethical investments use negative lending criteria. This means that the organisations that they lend money to cannot be involved in malevolent activities such as child labour, large scale environmental damage or the arms trade. But Triodos Bank has a different approach – the enterprises we invest in are all actively pursuing social, environmental and cultural goals, not just avoiding negative activities.

With a Human Approach

While Triodos provides opportunities for people to save and enjoy a reasonable rate of interest, a growing number of social enterprises need to finance their development. Many charities, social businesses, community groups, environmental initiatives have a wide range of socially valuable and innovative projects which need access to credit. They need a banking partner which understands the way they work, recognises and supports their values, and can work with them to find the right financial arrangements for their needs.

Triodos Bank co-workers use their expertise and judgement to assess each loan application on its own merits, analysing a project’s social, environmental and cultural ‘added value’ as well as its financial performance. We have a genuinely human approach to banking, sharing the values of the enterprises we support and taking the time to visit and understand each one. As a result, we support a wide variety of initiatives in many sectors, all over the UK and Ireland, reflecting the growing strength and diversity of the social economy.

Making a Real Difference

Saving with Triodos Bank means that people in all parts of the UK and Ireland can develop and build organisations which enrich their community and safeguard the environment – building a more sustainable future for us all.

Peter Blom, CEO Triodos Bank

Read more:

• Source: Triodosbank United Kingdom www.triodos.co.uk
• Espanol: Triodosbank Madrid www.triodos.es

11 200802 February 2008

Ralph Nader for President

February 24. Ralph Nader – the world famous advocate and frontrunner for consumer rights announced his plan to go for president! In the NBC television interview Meeting the Press he said ………….

• Twenty-four percent of the American people are satisfied with the state of the country, according to Gallup. That’s about the lowest ranking ever. Sixty-one percent think both major parties are failing. And, according to Frank Luntz’s poll, a Republican, 80 percent would consider voting for a independent this year. Now, you take that framework of people feeling locked out, shut, shut out, marginalized, disrespected and you go from Iraq to Palestine/Israel, from Enron to Wall Street, from Katrina to the bungling of the Bush administration, to the complicity of the Democrats in not stopping him on the war, stopping him on the tax cuts, getting a decent energy bill through, and you have to ask yourself, as a citizen, should we elaborate the issues that the two are not talking about? And the–all, all the candidates–McCain, Obama and Clinton–are against single payer health insurance, full Medicare for all. I’m for it, as well as millions of Americans and 59 percent of physicians in a forthcoming poll this April. People don’t like Pentagon waste, a bloated military budget, all the reports in the press and in the GAO reports. A wasteful defense is a weak defense. It takes away taxpayer money that can go to the necessities of the American people. That’s off the table to Obama and Clinton and McCain.
• I came to Washington over 40 years ago to help improve my country and started a lot of citizen groups who did that. That was a time you had a hearing in Congress, regulatory agencies like the Food and Drug Administration would be more responsive–Auto Safety Agency, EPA. That’s a time Nixon, because he heard the rumble of the people, and he was the last president to really fear liberals enough to change his position, signed OSHA, signed EPA, had a health plan that he didn’t really believe in, had a minimum income plan to abolish poverty, and then it started.
• Around 1979, the doors started closing on the citizen groups. So my concern, Tim, comes from, to give you statistics quickly, 58,000 workers who die every year from work-related diseases and trauma on the job; 65,000 people according to EPA who die from air pollution; over 100,000 people who die from adverse effects of medicines; 250 people a day who die from hospital-induced infections; and all the fraud, waste and abuse that’s eating at the heart of the family budget, aggravating them. They can’t get answers to their questions. They’re thrown into huge debt. Now they’re losing their houses while Wall Street speculators laugh all the way to the bank.
• That’s where my concern comes from. And I hope it’s shared by a lot of people around the country. I hope a lot of people will be gathered around the country to establish Congress watchdogs in every district, a thousand people–we want to hear from every congressional district—
• To show the American people how easy it is to turn the Congress around if people are organized. Fifteen hundred corporations get their way by–from a majority of 535 members of Congress. We’re millions of people out there, and we simply have to, for the sake of our children and grandchildren, and the state of our nation in the world, we have to mobilize in that manner, and that’s what that, that Web site is all about.
• It’s not just a website. It’s a gathering center!

•  www.votenader.org

08 200801 January 2008

Campus Tilburg University

ECOnomics in the 21st century – Beyond GDP

As the producers of copiers Ricoh are advertising with this new creative way of reading the word eco-nomics, so is the discussion about a sustainable future on the Global Action Day of the World Social Forum on January 26 worldwide, and in Davos at the World Economic Forum. But also in all the discussions about “Beyond GDP” in Brussels and Tilburg Netherlands about the new indicators towards growth of wealth (quality of life) instead of economic growth only.

Read more:

• www.eco-ricoh.biz
• www.worldsocialforum.org
• www.worldeconomicforum.org
• www.beyond-gdp.eu
• www.economischegroei.net

04 200712 December 2007

Annual Report Consumer360Academy

The year 2007 was full of activities and new developments. A new website, again hundreds of small catalist-actions such as comments, articles, networking, lobbying, joining discussions at many seminars and congress workshops, and last but not least following the world news to serve our members looking 360 degrees around the horizon to all twelve working fields in the world!

Strategically we worked more and more on priorities as quality of life, new ways in science, innovative initiatives and helping in the search for solutions in different problem-situations. And we started seminars and masterclasses in different cities in Holland and abroad! In Sofia Bulgaria we gave our first workshop in the Consumer Citizen Network CCN where teachers are preparing programmes for consumereducation on schools and universities worldwide, in connection with the UN Decade for Education on Sustainable Development (DESD 2004-2015). In our workshop we worked on the issue “Consumer, Arguments and Producers”.

In the world around us a lot of positive developments are going fast forward! Al Gore showed us the way in handling the Climate. Cradle2Cradle (see Google) is the new way for 100% sustainability. And Professor Pralahad wrote his famous marketing bestseller The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid about producing for the two billion poorest consumers as the new emerging markets! Globalising is going on!

Our plans for 2008 are to complete the english pages on our website and to globalise also! Our new (extra) name is consumer360.org to be remembered more easily, but especially to show the essence of the consumer-management-information-system. The image of the twelve daily needs produced around the horizon of our world!

PS For the bees who cannot speak for themselves we want to cry out for them that the global problem of CCD (Colony Collapse Disorder) is a problem for us all! The bees are dying of too much efficiency in bee-keeping, in the US and also in Europe up to 70% have died instead of the normal rate of 20% in winter times. And so we are loosing our girlfriends AND the basis of our agriculture!

So: buy more biological honey! (See also the breathtaking bestseller Phanomen Honigbiene – not yet in english – written by professor Jurgen Tautz and with 180 color photos isbn 978-3-8274-1845-6 and go to www.beegroup.de and watch the trailer video of BeeMovie!) Or Google to CCD Colony Collapse Disorder or CCD BEES in english or your own language. Save the bees!

The new subtitle of our association is: “forum for active consumers and innovative initiatives”!

Peter Daub
chairman
consumer360.org

03 200711 November 2007

Aula Technical University, Delft NL

Investing in Knowledge = Investing in the Future!

• This was the credo at the World Science Forum in Budapest-Hungary this month where they focused this time on environment and future generations. Read a bit in their long evaluationtext to feel about what scientists think about it today www.sciforum.hu
• At the Mining Conference in Delft-The Netherlands the header of the website was: Knowledge to Power the Future. We heard a lot about sustainability now on the same spot – a masterpiece in architecture – where we joined in 1972 the founding of the Dutch branch of the Club of Rome, now at last taken seriously after Al Gore told us to look around into the real world! www.mv.tudelft.nl/lustrum

• And for the future generation now on our schools there was a report presented by the social economic council to the minister of education about internships for students for meeting the future-in-the-making now in our businessworld, governments and civil society www.ser.nl
• And even we ourselves made a new start with two series of workshops in Amsterdam and Zoetermeer about “consumer governance”.

12 200710 October 2007

Consumers International, Cradle to Cradle, ISO 26000, and more

All consumer unions around the world gathered in Sydney this month at the 18th annual congress of Consumers International. Hot item was of course the development of the new ISO 26000 standard for social responsibility which will be launched worldwide in 2009. But many many other items were discussed of course. See (Consumers International was launched in 1959 in the Netherlands on initiative of Consumentenbond and many others, as Int Org of Consumer Unions IOCU).

# About sustainability is the best option given now by all the projects of Cradle2Cradle worldwide which are the most concrete examples of how to get the world sustainable (again). In the USA and China Ford and Nike changed whole productionlines already. A big pilot cityproject will be launched now in Venlo, Netherlands. See Google, Wikipedia, or the book itself written by William (Bill) Donough and Michael Braungart: Cradle to Cradle – Remaking the Way we make Things ISBN 0865475873.

# In bio(dynamic) foodchains plans are developed to professionalize client cards and pre-financing that piece in stock which will go to our own household by our purchases during the month. A way to become more associated with the whole chain of production to consumption (an old idea also of Consumer360 which we co-developed in different projects together with Triodosbank in the eighties, but which obviously becomes relevant only in the 21st century…..)

# In England and Holland discussions are ongoing about probable integrating alternative directions in medicare when based on professional basis.

Read more:

www.consumersinternational.org

10 200709 September 2007

Talk of the Day – The World as a Village

No great events in September but a lot of talking about everything! We were at a debate about the essence of warfare in Amsterdam, and next month about warfare and civilians organized by the Red Cross in the Peace Palace in The Hague. Since 9/11 everybody worldwide became aware that war and peace has everything to do with everybody!

We made a testdrive in the Honda Civic Hybride (smooth!) and read about BMW (fast!) in big advertisements about hybrid and hydrogen in the near future. And that electric power transmission has no technical limits for high speeds for trains and cars as well. China is thinking more thoroughly about sustainability, Korea is opening up a litlle bit, the US takes a litlle bit back of its authorithy and joins the debate, in the Middle East some problems have to be solved yet. African countries are in the picture now and will join the world economic stage soon. Consumers worldwide become more and more conscious of living in the same “village”!

10 200707 July / August 2007

Press Room: News in the Making – Interesting Developments Ahead!

More interesting than the hottest news of course is the expected news ahead! What news is in the making, which developments and trends are ahead, and can we see them already? In the same way as reading Agatha Christie life itself can be read as a thrilling story in which we ourselves are the players! As Shakespeare wrote for “As you like it” now performed in the open air theatre of Diever www.shakespearetheaterdiever.nl in Holland: “The world’s a stage …… and all consumers and producers are merely players”. www.enotes.com/shakespeare-quotes/all-world-s-stage ……..

And: invisible consumers and producers are becoming more and more visible! Of all twelve economic areas FINALLY the most earthy – food and agriculture – is appearing in full spotlight on the worldstage now! A little book appeared about the whole processing of money in the chain from consumer to producer working towards an economy of question and answer. (Geld verbindt de BD-voedselketen / Money connects the biodynamic foodchain / Jan Saal / 2,50 / overige uitgaven / www.gezichtspunten.nl / only in Dutch yet). It describes in an enthousiastic way how we can make the best connections and personal relations with our producers in buying the products cash and pin, saving and investing – call it prepaid – in stocks of the shops in the chain, and making new developments possible in research and education by subsidizing. After the developments of the paper baskets with fresh crops from the countryside this is the phase of professionalizing the relations between consumers and producers into the 21st century. For insiders: This book also finds its roots in 1980 when Triodosbank was founded, projects in many shops started together with many consumers, then students, some of them now CEO’s in the foodchain! Jan Saal is now director of the school for educating farmers and chairman of Demeter International in Holland, organization for biodynamic agriculture. See www.demeter-bd.nl or www.demeter.net The Triodosbank itself www.triodos.nl is now also present in Bristol www.triodos.co.uk Brussels www.triodos.be Frankfurt www.triodos.de and Madrid www.triodos.es and working together with banks worldwide in microfinancing projects. After being helpers then with the start of Triodosbank for producers and consumers, the writer of this newsarticle (Peter Daub) specialized since then in consumer issues and consumer organizations and founded the Vrije Consumenten Vereniging / Free Consumers Association in 2001. This year we chose our new (extra) name Consumer360 www.consumer360.org as our new international name.

More special news in the making is of course visible in all kinds of discussions about genetical modified food and medicins, about the great deathtoll of bees worldwide caused by the artificial beekeeping the last hundred years. The worldwide conference of beekeepers is next month in Melbourne www.apimondia2007melbourne.com But also Mac Donalds is now switching to ecological food! Perhaps all initiatives together worldwide give us a climate change in the right direction again? In the 21st century globalization shows that now everybody is a pioneer! The news is in the making every second of the day in every corner of the world! Of all developments in our 360 degrees world we see that everybody is aware of globalization now and wishing to be involved more and more! The new TV broadcasting station Independent World Television IWT www.therealnews.com started this month! Independent because it is financed by consumers only! A station where everybody can ask questions and make contributions in the search for news!

02 200706 June 2007

“Exchange Values”

Invisible Producers Made Visible 

In a globalized economy only our own imagination can make consumers and producers to a real experience. Two interesting presentations are trying to make us aware of our own responsibility to “see” our worldwide neighbours as consumers and/or producers.

Shelly Sacks, professor at the Oxford Brooks University presents an artistic social sculpture of dried bananas combined with production numbers to make visible for us consumers the producers of bananas on the Windward Islands. See www.exchange-values.org or ISBN 978-3-928780-66-7 Exchange Values – Images of invisible Lives or at the exposition untill August in the Goetheanum, Dornach Switzerland.

Best business book of the year is published by Professor C K Prahalad about the greatest yet invisible market opportunities in the 21st century: the 4 billion other consumers in the world! The Fortune of the Bottom of the Pyramid ISBN 9780131877290.

12 200705 May 2007

Gotthard Post

World in Progress: Long-term (Positive) Developments in a Nuttshell

Most of the time we give the news about the most interesting items, but this time we give you again a kind of overview of all twelve areas. Although in every area so many interesting developments are to be reported we try to concentrate on the main upward trends. And the biggest reason to be positive is that more and more people every day are thinking, talking and acting towards solutions. And that’s by definition an irreversible process!

1. religion / from clash of civilizations to meet & greet / understanding needs helicopterviews / from globalise to cosmosize …
2. art / art from outside watching to inside activity / art as a tool in daily life and for new social relations and building organizations …
3. science / getting the unvisible visible / from microscope and dna to planetary foodquality visualized in cristallization / and further …
4. education / every child worldwide / from individual development to a better society / consumer education and lifelong learning …
5. medicare / less patents for more medecins worldwide / clear water first …
6. food and nature / gentech to be contained / biological food in the lift / new energy / restoring sustainability …
7. housing / experiments experiments / organic architecture in the making / tangent lines and projective geometry as a tool …
8. money / sustainable investing / worldwide bookkeeping, stocks and perhaps worldmoney in due time / wto and fair trade …
9. transport / world is getting smaller every day / from tourism to ecotourism to private projects …
10. communication / internet and mobile / citizen journalists / alternative newsmedia / multi media…
11. law and politics / international diplomacy and crises mediation / participative democracy / europe as a test / proposals of citizens …
12. associations / all kinds of human relations / consumer-trade-producer relations / consumerorganizations …

04 200703 March / april 2007

New Name: Consumer360Academy

We launched our new international name www.Consumer360.org as a picture of what is meant by all-round “consumer governance”. We hope you will agree with us that it is a good description of how we as consumers want to know everything, to talk about everything and to be able to make the best possible choises.

The existing names freeconsumers.org and vrijeconsumenten.nl will be deleted.

Interesting to know is that the .com domain existed already as a name for the yearly congress for producers in packaging. One of the most important communication-carrying lines between producers and consumers! Another interesting newsitem this month is that the Dutch government will take initiatives to make sustainable production know-how an export issue of great importance!. The old VOC (Dutch East India Company) in the other direction! Bringing back the science and experience made possible by the delivery of all the products in the 17th century! Hopefully with lots of profit for all people worldwide!

Read more: 

www.consumer360.org

12 200702 February 2007

Consumer Governance in Action – Asking Questions

Saying no to Europe in a first round triggered all Europeans to go into debates now in February and in March (Berlin) about how to go forward! Thinking, debating and asking the best questions IS consumer governance towards those who do the government issues. And of course only if it is continued as a lifelong process and includes the checking of the answers! Only participating democracy is true democracy. Participating is also the right word in all other associations where consumers and producers are in a continuing dialogue about products and services. About quality, quantity and price. About guarantuee. And about payment, delivery and use. Participating by asking the questions especially about (inner) quality, and paying the right price in the right time. All questions asked in the last decades are now resulting in more and more positive actions of producers. For instance insurances for all kinds of medical treatment, teachers developing new lessons themselves, researchers going beyond the natural sciences looking for ALL knowledge! So that we can ask even better questions in the next round!

Read more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Declaration_(2007)

12 200701 January 2007

What is consumer governance?

As we saw this month at the World Social Forum in Nairobi, the World Economic Forum in Davos, and in the Netherlands how the new government in Holland and the EU were discussed, all signals were about understanding and especially about promoting consumer governance! People themselves as consumer-citizens are more and more taking seriously their role in asking the questions, but also their responsibility for their choises. But consumer governance also means dialogue with producers, government or educators, with marketing, science and last but not least check and double-check! Consumer governance has to do with all the same items as every manager has to work on. In a world where all labour is divided we are delegating or in fact asking to each other “to do the job for us”. And only DIALOGUE can bridge the gap again which we invented ourselves by dividing and delegating all those jobs: in space in time and in expertise!

12 200612 December 2006

Catalyzing Change 2001-2006

The smallest website about the biggest issue: consumer governance!

After 5 years we’re still a small organization but that has everything to do with the character of our association! Catalyzers ARE always small by definition, they only try to help forward the bigger issues! But in 2007 we will introduce our new website and start with more lectures and seminars. And of course also continue in writing comments, joining discussions and social forums, indirect lobbying via consumer organizations, and networking by matching information between organizations, press-agencies and individuals.

In 2006 we gave seminars in consumer governance at the Dutch Social Forum and at Nyenrode University. We joined conferences about consumer education in Hamar/Norway, Berlin/Germany and Utrecht/Netherlands.

And we were listening and discussing at several meetings with lectures of ministers and members of parliament. Plus seminars about microfinance, about alternative moneysystems, (Lietaer), and the introduction of his book Globalisation that works by Joseph Stiglitz in Amsterdam.

Comparing with other general and special consumer organizations we are focussed on management information as a tool itself. How can we as individuals oversee and understand the whole worldeconomy and ourselves in the middle of it? With the 360 degrees overview of consumerorganizations we all have to deal with, it has become much easier to find our way and to prepare our decisions. With the different pages of our website with “open courseware” information, search-options and a newpage in which we try to analyse the main issues, daily information becomes easy to read! In working out these things during lectures and seminars we experienced how everybody became aware of that as an eye-opener.

To write about all 200 actions this year would take pages. To get a broader insight of our activities see our former annual reports. An overview of the developments in consumer governance worldwide over the last few years is also given in our newspages.

02 200611 November 2006

Another World is Possible! Everybody is Creative!

This is what Joseph Beuys (1921-1986), the most famous modern artist of the 20th century, already said over and over again. Until February 2007 there is now a great exibition in Moyland Castle / Germany www.moyland.de about the materials he used to explain all unvisible things. Social relations, thoughts, feelings, and world tendencies in economical, social and spiritual human behaviour can be made visible by all kinds of materials to symbolise and wake up conciousness and will to change. Solutions are always creative actions and everybody is creative him/herself to do something to help to make a better world (Jeder Mensch ein Kunstler! Everybody is an Artist!). And all those possible other worlds can be discussed January 20-25 in Nairobi Kenya during the next World Social Forum www.worldsocialforum.org! And to get an even better look around what’s going on around the world you can also login on the new worldwide televisionchannel which is totally financed by the viewers only: the Independent World Television IWT www.iwtnews.com starts with an interview with Naomo Klein! So we can all start the year 2007 with many new tools for our heads, hearts and hands!

Read more:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Beuys

11 200609 September / October 2006

Worldwide discussions about disconnecting income and labour

First this: what counts most for us all as a human being is the quality of life! Isn’t it? Everything we choose in doing things ourselves, or buying products or services from others (producers government or cultural institutions) is to maintain or increase the quality of our life in the way we decide it to be quality! So the quality of life is always priority number one. And so the quality of products and services. But why are still so many products so poor in quality, unsustainable or even dangerous?

Because all labour is still connected to income! This system which was introduced a few centuries ago and later promoted by Adam Smith has driven the economy in a positive way. But also shows to be counterproductive to quality because income (quantity) was in fact the priority instead of quality. But the worldwide discussions now are revealing the truth that producing is only an economic issue. And talking about who needs what in a (world)family is an issue between all people, not only the producers! As we can see in all social sytems developed in the 20th century arranging finance for children, students, sick or jobless people and elderly (and for holiday or sabattical).

The discussions worldwide now about basic income and/or top wages are only the beginning of thinking about this! When all forms of income will be arranged between ALL people in the future, then, yes then the producers can really go for sustainability and quality! Then also visible in terms of bookkeeping, because everybody then has the money to pay for quality.

10 200607 July / August 2006

Dialogue, dialogue

The dialogue between consumer-citizens (civil society), governments and business is more and more going on as a matter of course. Especially in focusing on the essence, the quality of products and services. Based on all the questions asked in recent years we see now a minister talking about taste of food together with top-cooks, milk factories selling fresh milk from cows living outdoors, german top carmakers introducing hydrogen cars. Trade talks emerging to fair trade talks, microfinance for small entrepeneurs worldwide, conflictmanagement in international relations. The world has become a coffee-house! Dialogue was also the special focus of one of the co-founders of Triodosbank. Dr A H Bos (Lex) discovered in his seven years of research that dialogue has everything to do with facts versus opinions, and goals versus ‘roadmaps’. About facts and goals you need to agree, about opinions and the ways to work it out you are going into dialogue. Lex inspired thousands of people in governments and multinationals worldwide with his enthousiasm and profesionalism! He helped us all to find the basics of communication between people with the utmost respect for the individual freedom. Lex was also the mentor of our initiative! He died July 30 at the age of 81 and is still our mentor!

Read more:

Lex Bos

Literature: Lex Bos / Forming Judgements. A Path to Inner Freedom 87-89303-42-3 

Seminars and workshops: https://en.dialoog.net/“