ANTI-SLAVERY CAMPAIGN

Anti-Slavery Campaign; MTV
2007, 1 min 47 sec

Modern day slavery is big business. There are more people in slavery today than at any time in history… The UN estimates that 27 million people can be classified as slaves. Compare this to the 13 million Africans who were transported to the New World in the 350 years of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. The market in slave made products and services is worth $32bn. The only truly new thing about slavery today is the collapse in the price of people. In Alabama in 1850 the average slave cost the equivalent of £25,000. Returns would have been around 5%. Today as slave might cost you as little as £20. Returns can be as high as 800%. People are cheaper and in more plentiful supply than ever. It’s a good business to be in.

Slavery in the 21st Century is essentially no different from slavery in previous centuries. You’re a slave if you are no more than something to be bought and sold. If you play no part in deciding your future and your fate. If yours is a life without options. Today, child soldiers, debt bondage slaves and women who have been trafficked for sexual exploitation are just some of the more obvious examples of slavery. But the countless asylum seekers and immigrants who are forced to work, often without pay, in the industries that inhabit the twilight world of illegality are also enslaved.

This ad as accessed via an e-mail that was sent to big names in the financial world, promising them a ‘hot new investment’. When they clicked on the link in the e-mail, the found a website for a financial company. Four Continents Capital Management, that seemed to be investing in slave labour. The ad introduced their CEO.

BERNARD LIETAER TALKS ABOUT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE MONEY SYSTEM AND SUSTAINABILITY

Lietaer.com
2008, 9 min 52 sec

What is the relationship between our money systems and sustainability? In this video interview, Bernard Lietaer explains that our current money system programs us into short-term thinking, and is consequently a systemic cause of unsustainability. Lietaer exposes the systemic flaws in our money system and the wrong thinking that underpins it : and ultimately the impact it has on our communities, our society as a whole and our environment.

TRADER TELLS TRUTH

BBC News
2011, 3 min 30 sec

Here’s a new viral video that came from a BBC interview. In an interview on BBC News this morning that left the hosts gobsmacked, Alessio Rastani outlines in a mere three-and-a-half-minutes what we all know and most ignore. This is the famous quote “Governments don’t rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world.” Though some tried to debunk it as a prank, he is in fact a real trader. He was later quoted as saying he thought it was obvious and wasn’t really shocking at all. Apparently most people were stunned by his blatant honesty.

BERNARD LIETAER: THE FUTURE OF MONEY

Daniel Pinchbeck, Time for Change 2012
2011, 10 min

A brilliantly clear-sighted analysis of how on-going money innovations in dozens of countries around the world are proving that they can resolve key societal problems such as: jobless growth, community breakdown, the economic consequences of an aging society, the conflict between short-term financial thinking and long-term sustainability, and monetary instability itself.

Lietaer’s point is that money is only an agreement within a community to use something as a medium of exchange. This agreement is being placed under an unprecedented strain, due to a wide range of factors (from the creation of cybermoney and currency speculation to social and political issues). This momentum of change could become even faster, and the effects more brutal, if the instability of the monetary system continues to spread. And the indications are that it will. The global monetary crises proved that our money system is now sick, and that this affects everything. After all, money plays the role of modern society’s central information system equivalent to the nervous system in our own bodies. In order to prevent a global monetary meltdown, a unique vision of sustainable abundance, and the mechanisms for achieving this, is proposed.

PRIME MINISTER OF BHUTAN ON HAPPINESS

General Assembly of the United Nations; New York, USA
2011, 11 min 20 sec

A speech by Lyonchoen Jigmi Yoezer Thinley, Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Bhutan, at the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. The tiny Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan drew international attention a few years back for saying gross national happiness should trump gross domestic product when measuring a nation’s progress. If you’re going to prioritize happiness, the Bhutanese thinking goes, you’d better include the environment and mental well-being in your calculations.

MATT COOLIDGE: PLACE AS COMMODITY

The Center for Land Use Interpretation
2008, 2 min 35 sec

An interview segment with Matt Coolidge of the Center for Land Use Interpretation about American places developed as commodities, such as Disneyland, explaining his approach to developing regional exhibits about land uses and their impacts on the environment.

MONEY DIVERSITY: MONOCULTURE OF MONEY CREATES ECONOMIC INSTABILITY

PopTech, USA
2011, 23 min 32 sec

Bernard Lietaer argues that the monoculture of money is what creates economic instability, leading to liquidity crises. He calls for a greater diversity of alternative currencies, citing innovative and enormously successful initiatives like the Lithuanian Doraland Economy, the Torekes in Belgium and Switzerland’s famous alternative currency, the WIR.

BERKSHARES AND MULTIPLIER EFFECT

Boston Channel; Berkshire, USA
2011, 2 min 40 sec

Will Conklin talks to the Boston Channel about BerkShares and the Multiplier Effect for local communities. Berkshares are the local currency for the Berkshire region in Massachusetts. Debuted in 2006, over 400 businesses take them now. 5 different banks have partnered with BerkShares with a total of 13 branch offices now serving as exchange stations. Local currency keeps money reverberating in the community.

BERNARD LIETAER ON THE CRISIS

Bernard Lietaer, TEDxBerlin ; Berlin, Germany
2009, 18 min 46 sec

Bernard Lietaer asks the question: “Why this crisis? And what to do about it?” In this video he offers alternative economies, such as a complementary currency and a commercial credit circuit, which could very well become mainstream as they did for example in Uruguay.

TIME FOR CHANGE: TIME BANKING

Joao G. Amorim, USA
2010, 2 min 51 sec

2012: Time For Change is a documentary feature that presents ways to transform our unsustainable society into a regenerative planetary culture. This can be achieved through a personal and global change of consciousness and the systemic implementation of ecological design.