Dear all, namaskar,
It is kind of didi harimaya to refer you all to me. I am
not an expert in Prout. However, I realized some years back that perhaps
80 percent of human suffering is caused by faulty economic systems,
systems that never distribute the earth's resources to all the people
but rather keep those resources in the hands of a few. After realizing
this i was compelled to study both micro economics and macroeconomies in
the university. There i discovered that only capitalism and
communism/Marxism plus Keynesianism are discussed as economic models.
For business models only proprietorship, partnership and corporation are
discussed. This is in America. However, in other countries, i believe in
European countries and at a couple of Canadian universities, there is a
fourth business model taught, and that is cooperatives.
Cooperatives are the bedrock of Prout. Prout means converting all
businesses in a village or town or region to cooperatives. Exceptions
are the very very small businesses of eight employees or less which can
be run as family businesses (mom and pop stores) and the very large ones
such as coal and gas companies, which can be run by the regional
government on a no-profit no-loss basis.
Prout can be a very vast subject or a very simple subject.
It can involve all disciplines, such as economics, political science,
culture, sociology, anthropology, ecology, environmental science,
climatology, philosophy, neohumanism / spirituality and morality,
when considering to work towards what BABA terms as nuclear revolution
(holistic revolution) or it can be straight economics. Suppose right now
we stick to straight economics. Then in my opinion the two best
discourses of BABA for you to read are Principles of Economic
Decentralization and Requirements for Economic
Democracy. if you do not have these discourses, please write
to me and i will post them here for you. These two discourses, and
getting these principles embedded in your mind and heart, will help you
tremendously when talking to the public.
Capitalism is a centralized economy, with wealth
concentrated in the hands of a few wealthy elite, isn't it? And
communism is the same. The wealth is again concentrated in the hands of
a few, only this time it is in the hands of the communist party
bureacrats, the elite. Prout is the antithesis of these two
archaic and obsolete models. Prout stands for economic decentralization.
Prout advocates that every village, every town, should be both
economically and ecologically self-sufficient. It is about complete
local empowerment - economic empowerment. All food should be produced
locally, sold locally and consumed locally, i.e., purchased by the
townspeople. As you probably know, this is radically different from what
we have today, where fruits and vegetables are flown into America (again
an example) from countries as far away as Uganda, South Africa, Brazil
and Ecuador, which costs hundreds of thousands of dollars in fuel for
those planes. It is irrational and illogical to do this. We need to
follow the principle: grow locally, produce locally, sell locally, buy
locally. It refers not just to food, it refers also to other essential
goods such as soap, shampoo, toothpaste, textiles and clothes, medical
supplies, and educational supplies such as books. As far as possible.
all goods essential for existence must be produced locally. The prime
advantage of this strategy is that all local people will have
jobs. Today we see food items shipped to America from
thousands of miles away in South Africa and South America.
Essential electronic goods such as phones, televisions, computers,
cameras are all being shipped in from China. Cars are shipped in from
Japan and Korea. (Again I'm referring to America.) So the people in
Japan and Korea have jobs in factories producing cars, but what jobs do
Amerians have if no cars are produced any longer in America, or the car
companies go bankrupt, unable to compete with Japanese prices? As
my economics professor told me, when production stops in a country,
then there will be economic collapse. So it is critical, and it is
following Prout principles of economic decentralization, that people
produce all goods locally. This will keep everyone employed and it will
keep money circulating. Both these are critical for a healthy economy
and a healthy happy populace.
Capitalism by its very structure breeds selfishness,
self-centeredness and individualism in the masses. It is a very
heartless and cruel economic model. It destroys the kindness in a
society. As spiritualists we want to recover that kindness and affection
between human beings. It is impossible to do this under a capitalist
framework. The solution then is to establish cooperatives.
The Mondragon network in Spain is perhaps the most famous example of an
entire network of cooperatives supported both morally and financially by
the Spanish government. Less famous would be northern England
where many cooperatives and cooperative networks exist and flourish
outside the corporate grid. Sixty percent of Sweden's businesses
are legally set up as cooperatives. As a result, there is far more
equality in the workplace because the wage gap between the lowest paid
and highest paid is minimal. At most it is a ratio of ten to one. In
other words, the highest paid worker in the company, say the manager,
might earn ten times what the lowest paid worker earns. This
maintains some equality and closeness among the
workers/employees/owners. In American corporations today, the ratio
is 426 to 1, meaning the corporate CEOs are earning 426 times what the
lowest paid worker earns. Then where is the question of love and
affection between business colleagues when such a huge gap exists?
I hope that this gives you some idea, just a drop of an
idea, about Prout. Again, the best first step you can take is to read
the two discourses of BABA mentioned above and carry those principles
with you in your heart wherever you move in the world. Prout is
the panacea for the poor. Several economists have foretold that in
the coming Depression millions will die of starvation. Having
unbounded faith in BABA, we can remember that Prout is the solution, it
is the cure. But, we have to put Prout on the ground. We have to
establish cooperatives. We have to convince people in our community to
adopt the core principles of economic decentralization, because if
we do that then our community will be immune - untouched - by the coming
Depression, which BABA said will be far worse than the Depression of
1929. Baba made another comment that in this coming Depression,
Detroit will be far worse off than Kolkata. In the Great Bengal
Famine of 1942, millions starved to death in Kolkata alone. Already
the situation in Detroit is terrible but the mainstream press is not
telling us. We have to go to alternative news sites to learn about the
real economy.
Another critical aspect of Prout to understand is that it
is not just a fight for economic justice. It also entails a fight for
social justice. If religious or racial minorities (such as immigrants)
in a country are being persecuted, then we have to stand by them and
demand an end to their persecution. If as in India lower castes
are tortured and tormented by higher castes, then we have to immediately
take the side of the tormented persons and demand an end to their
persecution, even by physical force, as was done in the American Civil
Rights movement of the 1930s and 1940s. It will be of no use to
establish economic justice, economic democracy, if social injustice
continues. Hence Prout is a two-pronged effort - for economic justice
and social equality.
One more point. Recently both America and India published
their latest GDP/GNP figures. It shows that both are rising at about 3-4
percent. However, we also know that this in no way reflects the actual
condition of the suffering masses, thousands of whom have lost their
jobs and livelihoods and are living in their cars, on the streets and in
tents. So together we need to create a new formula (replacing the
useless GDP/GNP formula) that truly reflects the welfare of the common
people. In a Prout government this new formula should be utilized so
that at every moment the real condition of the people is understood and
immediate action can be taken in the case of any economic
hardship.
As didi mentioned, In May 2008 we held the First Summit of
the World Prout Assembly at Radford University in Radford, Virginia. By
any standards it was a glorious success, as many great speakers at
the vanguard of the justice movement in America came to speak there, and
thereby came to know something about Prout. Now we are organizing
the Second Summit of the World Prout Assembly, to be held in Hyderabad,
India in November 2010. It is one year away. This is because I need to
spend the next five months fundraising to raise minimum $50,000 to cover
the costs of another large conference which is entirely in the public
domain. If any of you have ideas for how and where to raise funds, I
would be very grateful to hear from you.
With best wishes and love,
gayattrii
www.wpasummit2010.org -
the conference website, updated as of yesterday. please send your
feedback and comments on the Conference program topics.
www.worldproutassembly.org
- the WPA online newspaper having more than 20,000 articles in its
database, along with hundreds of quotes and discourses of BABA, started
in January 2005.
.
