10 Reasons Why I Hate my Bank

I am FUMING after another lengthy and crappy encounter with my bank. I went in to pay 3 cheques and close a business account and three days later am still fuming.

But life is good for us really. Our house is not currently being repossessed. We are not trying to fend off phone calls and endless meetings about mortgage repayment issues. We have not tried to change our direct debit recently. We are not being overcharged on our renegotiated mortgage payments meaning we have no money for groceries. We are not overdrawn.

I have friends in all the above situations who are sick with anxiety and stress from it. And every interaction with the bank leaves them feeling more powerless and frustrated.

Anger towards the banks in Ireland is HIGH. Anger at every level of the system which screws with you and makes you feel used and abused.

Let me add a disclaimer right now - this is not directed at bank employees per se, who I know have been at the blunt end of a lot of shit. My anger is directed at individuals, and banks as a generic mass, and my particular branch... So let me continue...

1) They charge me to put money into my account. No other bank that I have banked with in the UK, Japan or France have done this.

2) They charge me to take money OUT of my account. Ditto.

3) They do not pay me interest on the money that they are sitting on. My last bank paid me 7.5% interest.

4) The government charge me tax for any cheque book, credit card or ATM card I have. This is just shit. Ditto above points.

5) SOOOO paying through the nose for each of these services one would expect great service... ummm.... no! You have to queue for 20-30 minutes if you go to the bank between 10.30 and 3.30. To be served by the ONE cashier. This is in a major town - population 15,000 with at least that many people again in the outlying area. In fact out bank has recent been redesigned - with money for us of course - to cut down the customer service positions from 2 behind a service desk, to one floating adviser, to cut cashiers from 3 to 1 sometimes two, and to replace them with a bank of machines.

6) The machines will not accept notes that have been folded to much. Cheques with staples in, or that have been folded at all. That is most of what I try to pay into the bank. Once they even lost a substantial fundraising cheque I paid in. Gone.

7) But if you try to use the cashier, you pay double for a woman with a serious case of the grumps.Who then can't do what you want either.

8) Our bank branch refused to give us a very small mortgage, despite the fact we had a substantial deposit, had a well paid steady job, and had paid off a different mortgage with them, without fail, for 12 years. The same branch of the bank in the next town gave us the mortgage - we named our third child after that woman! That is how grateful we were to have a family home and a woman who cared enough to help us negotiate the mortgage madness with kindness and caring.

9) We, the tax payers bailed out the banks...without any say in the matter. Our children will still be indebted because of this. The economy tanked. Businesses closed. Lots of people became unemployed and suddenly couldn't pay mortgages. The banks do not give a flying fuck. They do not see the morality of do as you have been done to - we bailed your corporate, capitalist butts out - but you can sell family homes from under people, to get YOUR money back.

10) It makes no difference if I change banks cos they're all the same. Everyone I know in Ireland hates their bank.

Here endeth the rant.

The Gathering: A Hundred Thousand Welcomes to the Land of Broken Dreams

2013. The year of The Gathering.

"The what?", I hear you ask, if you're not from these climes...

The Gathering...

"Cead mile failte." The traditional Irish greeting of a hundred thousand welcomes is being proffered by the Irish tourist board and government, as an initiative to tempt rich Americans and anyone lucky enough to have escaped the country, recently, or centuries ago, back for a holiday, to show off our cultural finesse, gloss over the economic meltdown and then turn them upside down, so the gold falls out the bottom of their pockets and plugs a hole in this sinking ship of a nation (is that enough mixed metaphors for you?!)

Meh.

Gabriel Byrne referred to it as a "scam" and a "shakedown". And he'd be right. And it is shallow. It says, we want you if you have money, but not needs.

In reality this is not the year of the gathering, but a Leavetaking, or Scattering. Last year 238 left our shores. Everyday. From a country of only 4 million.

And it's not just European immigrants heading home now times are tougher. 53% leaving are native Irish. 87,100  of our population left in the 12 months to April 2012, according to the Central Statistics Office. They are expecting the same figures again for 2012-13. 

This is the land of the hundred thousand goodbyes.

Phew, fewer kids to pay for, you can hear the government sigh. Fewer sick people to deal with. Fewer on the dole. Fewer people in need of services. Yes but less taxes, less diversity, fewer families together. This is a brain drain as our youngest and brightest leave these shores. And many young married couples who had studied abroad, intending to head home to start their families, stay away because of the lack of prospects.

I don't know of anyone coming to the Gathering. But I know of families leaving. Posting their house keys through their doors, because they can't sell, because they're in negative equity, and they can't pay their mortgages. Families who came over to work for companies which are now barely surviving. Who have taken two pay cuts in a year. Every family I know lives under the constant stress of their main wager earner losing their livelihood. Families going to Australia in their droves, leaving behind grandmas and parents and siblings.

We came home to Ireland 8 years ago. After years of living in the UK and travelling. It truly felt like a home coming. It was my dream come true to be finally living in the community of my birth, close to two sets of parents. But now I'm not so sure, almost everyday I wonder would the grass be greener elsewhere?

Welcome to the land of a hundred thousand broken dreams.

Down to the Bare Bones - Cutting (the fat of) Child Benefit

Let us take care of our children, for they have a long way to go.

Let us take care of our elders, for they have come a long way. 

Let us take care of those of us in between, for we are doing the work.

(Traditional Blessing)

This is my hope: in a culture of austerity may we not have a poverty of vision.

May we hold our values above our economics.

May we respect each stage in the journey of life as having value and dignity, and offer the support it needs, rather than resent each penny that is required.

May we not turn against each other in trying to find solutions.

Let us stop for a minute and look beyond the numbers, to the ambitions and basic needs of every family. Let us nurture the creation of healthy families, support their aspirations, regardless of their parental financial situation. Let us give every child, the same basic funding so that we know their basic needs can and will be provided, come what may. Let us value the next generation financially. Let us value the parents who care for them.

A hopelessly idealistic plea, you might think. But one for which I make no apologies, nor take any credit.

This is the vision of Child Benefit.  A Universal financial payment which has been supporting families for decades. (for a great explanation of what Child Benefit is and what's happening to it, see yesterday's post in our BlogMarch.)

And yet at exactly the time we need Child Benefit like never before, we are being chastened for being greedy and unrealistic in valuing what we have. What (in a good economy)  was thought of as a vital support for parents and children is now seen as a luxury (in a flat-lining economy), and one to which the rich are not entitled .... so nor should the poor or the squeezed middle be. We soon will have to prove that we deserve it, that we are poor enough, and jump through the hoops of the already creaking Family Income Supplement system to get less than what we already have...

How fair is that?

I am not going to give you a sob story about the choices we as a family make or the details of our personal finances. They are truly not your problem. Because I do not expect you, or the State, to take financial responsibility for me and my children.

Just like I do not expect to have to pay to bail out the banks. Or repay bond holders. But I have. And my cost of living has shot through the roof, as our means have declined. But market forces only work one way, it seems.


I want to live in a society which values - financially and morally - the needs and contributions of each sector of society from youngest to oldest - at their time of need. 

I thought I did. But I was wrong. 

I understand something: money is all that matters right now. The money for the party (of which my generation and my children's were not part of) has to come from somewhere. The bill has to be paid.

But why from those of us who are under the most pressure? Who are working to build our careers, care for small children and pay off mortgages?These children are our country's future and we the current economic powerhouse. We do not feel very powerful.

On Monday, the IMF admitted it completely underestimated the effects of austerity on the Irish economy. A new report showed that for every €100 of cuts, a knock-on €50 loss to the economy had been expected - through loss of employment and reduced spending.The reality was two-three times this.  

Let us not keep making these mistakes. Let us learn from the evidence.

The argument goes that Child Benefit is a luxury. Or that it funds luxuries. In a tough economy we need to learn to "man up" and realise that life is hard, which means cutting back the fat. Child Benefit is fat. Some are even suggesting that children are luxuries (I thought in Catholic Ireland they were supposed to be blessings from God, but what would I know?).

I see Child Benefit like this: if you benefit the family, you benefit the child, and you invest in the future. Cut the investment, limit the potential, pay later for the consequences... 

But we are so worried about now. About what if we can't pay the Troika, that we forget our future. We forget the value of our children and the families that are nurturing the future.

Children are one third of our population and all of our future.  

~Select Panel for the Promotion of Child Health, 1981

Meanwhile my children are aware that almost every time they ask for something the answer is always "sorry, no love, we just can't afford it right now." And so we focus on the luxuries that we can give them, the ones that money can't buy, and squash them into their shoes for a bit longer. And pray that no one gets sick in a way our skeletal medical insurance can't cover.

We are down to the bare bones. Our family. Our country. Where do we go now?

In the end it is down to numbers on a computer. Not lives or values. Just economic survival. 

And computer says no. 

So the numbers must be made smaller. What these numbers represent does not matter so much. The impact on lives, the hardship, the anxiety, the loss of opportunity...

Well computer, you know what? 

We say NO too.

10 Irish parenting bloggers have joined forces in a “BlogMarch” to raise awareness of the crippling impact that cuts to child benefit will have on Irish families if introduced in December’s budget. The bloggers are publishing a blog post each over ten days to highlight the negative impact that child benefit cuts will have, as well as spearheading a nationwide media campaign. 

To find out more about the campaign, see my post here

You can join us on the new Irish Parenting Blogs Facebook page here

And on Twitter with the hash-tag #blogmarch 

You can contact Joan Burton, minister in charge of child benefit: joan.burton@oireachtas.ie

You can find the email addresses of all current TD’s and Senators here

You can sign the petition against Child Benefit Cuts here

There is a march organised against cuts to Child Benefit planned for November 3rd in Dublin. Starting at Parnell Square, D1 at 12 noon here

Read the other Blog March posts

The post that inspired me to start this whole campaign off: Ciara @Ouch My Fanny Hurts: Where her mother says we all need to speak up 

Day 1: 'Child Benefit Stole My Child's Allowance' at  
The Irish Rhymes

Day 2  (Tuesday 9th):          The Clothesline Blog    
'Stuck In The Middle- No To Child Benefit Cuts' 
http://theclotheslineie.wordpress.com

Day 3  (Wednesday 10th):   Mind The Baby  
Leave Child Benefit Alone, Tax Maternity Benefit Instead          
http://mindthebaby.wordpress.com/

Day 4  (Thursday 11th):       Dreaming Aloud    
Down to the Bare Bones - Cutting (the fat out of) Child Benefit       
http://www.dreamingaloud.net/

Day 5  (Friday 12th):          The Daily Muttering        
http://thedailymuttering.blogspot.ie/

Day 6  (Saturday 13th):       Kate Takes 5                
http://katetakes5.blogspot.ie/

Day 7  (Sunday 14th):         Wholesome Ireland      
http://wholesomeireland.com/

Day 8  (Monday 15th):        Ouch My Fanny Hurts 
http://ouchmyfannyhurts.wordpress.com/

Day 9  (Tuesday 16th):        Wonderful Wagon      
http://www.wonderfulwagon.com/

Day 10 (Wednesday 17th):  Mama.ie                   
http://mama.ie/

BlogMarch against Child Benefit Cuts

We are on day 2 of the BlogMarch of 10 members of the Irish Parenting Bloggers group. A plan I dreamed up on the toilet last Friday morning and shared on the Irish Parenting Bloggers Facebook page. Over the next 48 hours magic happened through the incredible enthusiasm and hard work of all these incredible women involved - women who have full time work and parenting responsibilities - we now have a nationwide blog, media and social media campaign to make parents' voices heard on proposed changes in our economy.

To bring you up to speed on the issue:

Last week in anticipation of our (fifth) austerity budget, an Irish advisory group to Social Protection Minister, Joan Burton, recommended cuts to Child Benefit, a Universal social payment received by all Irish families. 

They propose cutting the rate from €140 to €100 per child and putting a system in place where by low-income families can apply for a top up (via the Family Income Supplement system (FIS) - which is currently running 9 month waiting lists.)

On the same day this happened, our government, paid €1 Billion to unsecured bondholders of AIB bank.

This was the last straw. For me. And thousands of parents around Ireland. It was the line in the sand that had been crossed. Something has to be said. Something needs to be done. Enough is enough. I will be blogging about our own personal experiences on Thursday. But before then you can see what the other bloggers involved have to say on the matter. (See below for the BlogMarch schedule and all the ways that you can get involved.)

The Irish Parenting Bloggers are great writers and each post on the BlogMarch is the blogger's own view. Enjoy! 

Read the other Blog March posts

The post that inspired me to start this whole campaign off: Ciara @Ouch My Fanny Hurts: Where her mother says we all need to speak up 

Day 1: 'Child Benefit Stole My Child's Allowance' at  
The Irish Rhymes

Day 2  (Tuesday 9th):          The Clothesline Blog    
'Stuck In The Middle- No To Child Benefit Cuts' 
http://theclotheslineie.wordpress.com

Day 3  (Wednesday 10th):   Mind The Baby  
Leave Child Benefit Alone, Tax Maternity Benefit Instead          
http://mindthebaby.wordpress.com/

Day 4  (Thursday 11th):       Dreaming Aloud    
Down to the Bare Bones - Cutting (the fat out of) Child Benefit       
http://www.dreamingaloud.net/

Day 5  (Friday 12th):          The Daily Muttering        
http://thedailymuttering.blogspot.ie/

Day 6  (Saturday 13th):       Kate Takes 5                
http://katetakes5.blogspot.ie/

Day 7  (Sunday 14th):         Wholesome Ireland      
http://wholesomeireland.com/

Day 8  (Monday 15th):        Ouch My Fanny Hurts 
http://ouchmyfannyhurts.wordpress.com/

Day 9  (Tuesday 16th):        Wonderful Wagon      
http://www.wonderfulwagon.com/

Day 10 (Wednesday 17th):  Mama.ie                   
http://mama.ie/

• You can sign the online petition here.
• You can tweet at #BlogMarch.
• You can contact Joan Burton at joan.burton@oireachtas.ie
• You can find the email addresses of all current TD’s and Senators here
• You can sign the petition against Child Benefit Cuts here
• There is a march organised against cuts to Child Benefit planned for November 3rd in Dublin. Starting at Parnell Square, D1 at 12 noon - see here
• You can join us on the new Irish Parenting Blogs Facebook page here
• You can read, think, discuss anywhere. 

Beyond money

Welcome back to Mindful Money Week!

One of the ways we can make peace with money is by it taking a less prominent role in our lives, in moving beyond money.

The more you are plugged into the external economy and the outside world, the more cash you need to fulfill your needs. The more self sufficient and plugged into informal money-less economies the less you will need. 

We are all plugged into the external economy to a greater or lesser extent and its impact can be damaging and scary, emotionally and financially for families, especially in these turbulent times.

How can we make our families more resilient, so we can ride the economic rollercoaster with maximum joy and confidence?

The sustainable money circle

1. know how much you have
2. know how much you need
3. know your skills
4. know your networks
5. know your value 
6. set up your income streams
7. do your work
8. collect your income
9. use your income
10. rest and reflect

Mindful money week

This is the introduction to the Mindful Money series at Dreaming Aloud. Take some time to check out the other posts on...

Naming Your Price

Our Matriarchal Inheritance
The Blessing of Money
Guilt
Finding your inner entrepreneur
Transformational Teachers
Beyond Money

WELCOME TO THE MINDFUL MONEY SERIES.

Do you have peace with money? Or does it make you feel uncomfortable when even the thought of it comes up?

Money holds a lot of emotional energy for most of us.

Everywhere I see people struggling with it:

• Those who scorn money and won't admit that they need it, and then get angry at the world because they are struggling. 
• Those who live in enforced deprivation.
• High flying gurus who are cashing in on $1000 an hour coaching fees, flogging over priced products to the desperate,  promising miracles they cannot provide. The spiritual movement seems as guilty of this as pure capitalists.
• The majority of the world who sell their souls for the highest wage they can get, in work that sucks them dry, that they don't believe in.
• Women who when asked to name their price for their work prefer to give it away for free than value themselves.
• The mega rich who squander their wealth.
• Those who use it to manipulate and abuse.

We're in a very unhealthy state about money - as individuals and collectively. 

We scrimp and save, we waste and splurge mindlessly. We borrow what we cannot afford. We undervalue ourselves, then steal to make up the difference. Or we drive too hard a bargain which impoverishes others.

Richness, and poverty are incredibly subjective terms. Many people who are financially wealthy feel they don't have enough.

We are mindless about money. Often it "makes us feel" guilty, angry, greedy, needy. We become obsessed by it. Or try to have nothing to do with it.

What's that all about? Why all the emotion?

Money is just paper, just numbers... or is it? It seems to hold humanity in its thrall.

Money can become our shadow.

Our civilisation is being brought to its knees by our mindlessness to do with money - the banking crises and credit crunch, bankruptcy in nations and individuals.

So this week we're going to spend exploring money - how we make it, how we charge it, how to feel good about it, how to value ourselves, how to move beyond money...

In order to become mindful, we need to be honest. The only way to see a shadow is to shine your light on it and look.

This can feel uncomfortable.

But get this: THEY ARE ONLY FEELINGS. ONLY THOUGHTS.

Yes, really!

So take a deep breath. And let's get to work.

I'm really excited about this!! I vision it as a way that we can support each other in becoming healthy in our earning - and spending. So that we can make our peace with money. So that we can transition to a new sense of value, of economics, of worth in our own lives - which can seed itself into our culture.

This may well become an e course in the future - so consider it a work in progress, which you get to see emerging, for free - and get to contribute to the creation of!

I ask this of you in return - in the spirit of giving and receiving which we are exploring. If what you are reading touches you - please give something in return, whatever feels really good to you - no expectations, no obligation. And absolutely NO guilt!

Giving back could mean ...

• Share the posts whether on Facebook/ Twitter or by email (see the buttons below this post for a quick and easy way) 
• Join the discussion. Add your comments, your questions, your experiences.
• You can support my work financially by donating, buying from The Happy Womb or Etsy, or buying via any of the affiliate links I share on this site.

Thank you...

This is the introduction to the Mindful Money series at Dreaming Aloud. Take some time to check out the other posts on...

Naming Your Price

Our Matriarchal Inheritance
The Blessing of Money
Guilt
Finding your inner entrepreneur
Transformational Teachers
Beyond Money

What do we do now?

Walking down the road with my three and one-year-old girls they are oblivious to this international turmoil. The only winds of change which blow are the chill autumn breezes of this moment. I look at them and wonder how the world will be when they have little children of their own. Very different I presume. Not too hard I hope. I fear for them, for the world at this moment of transition. And I want to look back and say - in all honesty and conviction - we were there at that time of change, we played our part, we did our best.

As regular readers will know I have been blogging about transition, culture change and the economic crisis since Dreaming Aloud started. This time last year, on the verge of Ireland's economic bailout and General Election, I wrote this...

For the times they are a-changin'

Come writers and critics

Who prophesize with your pen

And keep your eyes wide

The chance won't come again

And don't speak too soon

For the wheel's still in spin

And there's no tellin' who

That it's namin'

For the loser now

Will be later to win

For the times they are a-changin'.

"In Madrid, tens of thousands thronged the Puerta del Sol square shouting "Hands up! This is a robbery!". In Santiago, 25,000 Chileans processed through the city, pausing outside the presidential palace to hurl insults at the country's billionaire president. In Frankfurt, more than 5,000 people amassed outside the European Central Bank, in scenes echoed in 50 towns and cities across Germany, from Berlin to Stuttgart. Sixty thousand people gathered in Barcelona, 100 in Manila, 3,000 in Auckland, 200 in Kuala Lumpur, 1,000 in Tel Aviv, 4,000 in London.

Guest Blogger on The Anti-Room today

The election date is set. The parties have launched their election campaigns. Let the gender battle commence...How do you decide who to vote for?To read the full article visit:
http://theantiroom.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/guest-post-the-double-x-factor/

Just stopped by from The Anti-Room? Welcome to Dreaming Aloud! Here are some previous posts that might interest you:
Votes for Women
ANGRY!
A Sane Response to Crazy Times
This is our Moment
Call Yourself a Feminist?
Fleeing Vesuvius: Book review

ANGRY!

A response to the Budget announcement 

  'The biggest sting in today's budget will be felt by women with children', said Labour Party Finance Spokesperson Joan Burton. She said of the €2.1bn in cuts, €1.6bn would be borne by the areas of health, children and social protection. She said working people would do the heavy lifting in this Budget.

What did we do? We who were students during the Celtic Tiger? We who will not be able to afford to save for a pension, nor send our own children to university.

What did our children do that their school should get less money? When their parents are already filling the funding shortfall.
What did our family do to deserve to pay at least an extra €2000 in tax next year? On top of the extra taxes already levied on us over the past two years.
What did the poorest do to lose 15% of wage, every hour?
What did the sick do?
What did the carers do to lose 5% of their meagre income?

BOOK REVIEW: FLEEING VESUVIUS

Fleeing Vesuvius: 

Overcoming the risks of economic and environmental collapse

Fleeing Vesuvius, published in Ireland by FEASTA*  is a book of its time, written by some of our brightest minds, for our people. Its stated aim “to arm its readers with the knowledge they need to develop new ways of doing things, instead of staggering from crisis to crisis” trying to patch up systems that are no longer viable. This, then, is a book of the moment, for the moment. It may hold many explanations for why we are where we are and what we might do about it.

Be Prepared (Part 3): Instead of Money

Money, money, money
Always sunny
In a rich man's world

A little Abba to brighten your day!

Our global culture has moved from one in which indebtedness was considered a sin or a crime, to the past decade, where indebtedness became the norm. But now the chickens have come home to roost.

We are all plugged into the external economy and its impact can be damaging emotionally and financially for families. How can we make our families more resilient, so we can ride the economic turbulence with minimal suffering?

Be Prepared (2): Skills for Resilient Families

It is my belief that the most important investment you can make for yourself, your family, your community is in yourself. Learning new skills and then sharing them with others, either through your work, or by teaching them to others. This, regardless of what sort of state the world is in, is where the richness of life comes from.

Multiple choice madness... a sane response to crazy times

We are living in crazy times. The Irish people want answers. No one in Government seems willing or able to provide them. So, here is your multiple choice way of dealing with the economic crisis. It's about as scientific and reliable as anything else going around at the moment ...

VOTES FOR WOMEN

88 years ago all Irish women won the right to vote.

What does a vote mean to you?

Women make up 50 % of the population...

In our last election an equal number of men and women voted...

And yet...

We currently have 22 women TDs in 166 seats, 13 women in the senate out of 60...

How might things have been different if we'd had a female Minister for Finance during the past decade? A female Taoiseach (Prime Minister)? How might things be different?

The time has come for positive change, a re-balancing of power. Now is our opportunity.

This is not a battle of the sexes. Nor a call to arms. The time is ripe to build a new political culture. A sustainable economy. A culture based on community, not business values.

Ireland has a strong modern history of voting in powerful, considered, intelligent, respectful Presidents: we have had 20 solid years of a female premiere. In the last Presidential election 4 of the 5 candidates were female. We recognise the skills which they offer, we allow them to represent us with grace, diplomacy and intelligence on the international stage. So why not in national politics? Now is the time, our opportunity to say, enough of the "boyos". Let us beckon in a new political culture, one which nurtures, rather than destroys our culture.

Of course women alone do not hold the answer. But nor do men. And yet for centuries men have been in sole charge of nation building. During the twentieth century, women began to enter politics. Now it is time for women to raise their voices, not a little but to their full force, to full equality. To speak up for the values they want to see their public representatives embody. To give voice to what have normally been considered "female" values, which many men hold too: nurturing, respect, supporting, prioritising health, family and caring.

This is not a time for finger pointing, BUT, count the number of female bankers, lawyers, property developers, TDs who profited from the shady shenanigans of the past decade. They are very few and far between. We may not be responsible for the mess, but we have many skills to help clear it up and help to transform not only policies but the way politics are done.

What we need is to use our democratic power to the full. Now could be a time of deep unrest. One trade union has already threatened civil unrest. We saw the men crashing through the Gardai outside Leinster House yesterday. The last thing we need now is chest beating and violence. What we need is co-operation, collaboration, inspiration, making peace, building communities, not war mongering and  ego boosting. What we need is a Great Conversation. One which includes us all.

No more party politics. No more braying in the House of Representatives. No more back-handers. We need the committed work of all elected to turn our country, not only around, but inside out. Into a functioning, caring, democratic society, one which celebrates, supports and builds on, rather than exploits or destroys, the wonder of its people; our beautiful, bounteous island home; our stunning, diverse natural habitat; our fertile fields; our creative culture; our long and deep spiritual heritage; our strong families and communities; our young and booming population.

Votes for Women will encourage women to vote.
It will campaign for a positive election.
It will encourage people to vote for women candidates.
It will bring the above issues to regular attention through press releases to the nation media.

All in favour say "aye".

"Watch out, rocks ahead!"

The jolt in our civilisation is much on my mind at the moment. Watching the Trillion Pound debt programme and reading Fleeing Vesuvius: Overcoming the Risks of Environmental and Economic Collapse, I am trying to arm myself with the facts. The scale of the figures involved in our current economic situation are mind-boggling.  The problem is that they are almost inconceivable to this little, well-educated human mind.  The FEASTA publication suggests we ask ourselves three questions: what can I do, what can our community do and what is out of my hands?

And that has been my approach thus far. We are moving our money out of banks, investing in real, useful things: insulation for our house, bicycles, a water butt, books for knowledge, a full bulk-bought store cupboard, education for ourselves. We are borrowing our mortgage from family and paying back to the banks what is theirs so that we are not caught up in their mess. We are keeping open minds about our "work" and earning potential, diversifying our revenue-streams, so that we are not reliant on one source of income. We are trying to make ourselves as self-sufficient  as we can, simultaneously rooting ourselves in our community - supporting local business, individuals and services. We are building up community capital, investing time in friendship, skill exchanges, swaps of unwanted products: clothes, books etc amongst firneds and our freecycle community. I have been a big fan of Rob Hopkin's Transition Towns Movement and we are guided by its principles and actions. I consider us to be a Transition family, more of which another time...

I am not trying to get apocalyptic, but at the same time, major, major changes are happening around us, especially in Ireland and the UK which are changing the way we will live and work and our financial standing for generations to come. Gone are the big cosy pensions, the two foreign holidays a year, the jobs for life, the free University education, free old-age care, mortgage relief for the unemployed. We are being expected more and more to provide for ourselves and our families: we must anticipate our needs, to be response-able.

The image I have chosen for this post is symbolic: each family can try to be an island, to prepare themselves to withstand the stormy seas, but still we are reliant on the mainland for many of our survival needs. Also we that understand a little about the challenges which coming can be like lighthouses to others, showing the way through the dark seas, "Watch out, rocks ahead!"

The Chinese character for crisis is danger plus opportunity. And this is where we are. Some days we are hopeful, the world is full of new promise and exciting changes, the next it is like staring into the abyss,  as we assess and await the unknowable. I feel like a consummate Girl Guide and am working hard to "be prepared".

And you... how are you and your family responding to the changing economic climate? Is it all alarmist hype? Are you hoping it'll all blow over? Or are you making changes and preparations for a different way of life?

Creating climate change from within

A 1700 word article

Looking at the enormous upheavals in our financial system over the past two years, I feel a certain lack of shock. Whilst our leaders scrabble for solutions to this unanticipated crisis, prophets of all stripes have foreseen this coming: the crash of stock markets, the depletion of resources, food shortages, wide-spread armed conflict, environmental degradation and cataclysmic weather conditions have been foretold for millenia. The book of Revelations, Nostradamus, the Maitreya adherents on one hand. Schumacher in the 70s was writing clearly that peak oil was a reality. Indeed the ancient Maya had the date 2012 down as the end of this cycle of world civilisation. And so, here we are…

We have become so used to hearing stock phrases such as 'climate change', 'the financial crash' and 'energy crisis' bandied around that they have become a short hand. We do not think about either the terms or their implications – by taking us back to how we talk and think about what is facing us I hope to reframe these ideas, to give insight into what they might mean for us as a society.

Marilyn Ferguson, author of the best-sellling book, The Aquarian Conspiracy, says: “Whenever we name things, we structure consciousness. As we look at the great social transformation underway, we will see again and again that naming awakens new perspectives.”

Semantics can be about hair splitting. But this is not intended as cleverness for cleverness’ sake. When words become so habitual we become immune to their power. They become ciphers, and their inherent meaning becomes lost. Don Miguel Ruiz in his book The Four Agreements talks of how we dream our world into being. Each of us has our own dream of reality. The language and images which we both dream in, and use to describe these dreams of reality, if unconscious, mean that the dream is being shaped unconsciously, which we therefore have little control over. By bringing these words and images into the light of our consciousness, and bear witness to them, we become conscious of consciousness, mind becomes aware of itself. “Recognition – literally ‘knowing again’ – occurs when the analytical brain, with its power to name and classify, admits the wisdom of its other half [the right side of the brain] into full awareness.” The Aquarian Conspiracy.

This is the crux of the paradigm shift needed to truly address the issues facing ourselves and our world. For though there are large physical shifts happening in terms of the physical climate of our planet, they are, if we hold that we are responsible for climate change, as a direct result of our actions, which in turn are a direct result of our thoughts. What we think and what we say is the first change which then informs our action. In Buddhist terms one cannot have right action without right thought and right speech: all are interlinked. We cannot fix these issues with words – but our words give an insight into how we are seeing and why we are acting as we are.

'Climate change' and 'the energy crisis' are not just ecological problems 'out there' in the world at large but are both physical manifestations and also metaphors for our individual selves: as above, so below. As the Romantic poets and philosophers noted, the microcosm is always a reflection of the world at large, the macrocosm – two reflective pools, each referring back to the other. We are living in a cultural climate change also, not one purely based on our carbon emissions, but on something far deeper: our inner environment. Many of us are realising that we cannot continue to live as we have been, we need to change our cultural climate, and fast. We have been burning the candle at both ends, racing endlessly from one appointment to the next, always on the go, squandering our own energies as well as the oil and coal which fuel our buzzing lives. Not just the banks but we ourselves have been living beyond our means, borrowing to fund our excessive lifestyles.

As a culture we have become accustomed to always looking outwards. We point the finger, like Michelangelo’s Adam, out at God, or indeed our fellow human beings, rather than looking inwards for answers. It has been the ultimate myth, perpetuated by rulers and religions throughout history: we are powerless, the power and responsibility lies without, as does our salvation. We cannot solve the current problems facing us whilst still coming from a place of fear. For too long we have lived in a fear based culture: that is what has got us where we are. The perception that we are fighting an enemy is so ingrained and so our leaders look for precedents and guidance in our recent history, but find none. The old rules do not and cannot hold. We are trying to apply a materialist paradigm to solve a non-material dilemma: money, depletion of energy and unseen gases are all far more abstract than human combatants which we have fought for so long, or geographical territories which we have sought to conquer. And so our means and resources, indeed our whole approach must necessarily be different.

It might seem strange to refer to money as 'abstract' but the current crash is purely about these abstractions, the plummeting down of numbers on screens, the investments in unknown debts, speculation of potential gains. We cannot be pressurised, forced or guilt-tripped by tax, policy or rhetoric into the fundamental changes which are needed for truly sustainable living.

For too long the environmental message has just been another mental idea 'out there' taken up by a few, not an embodied philosophy for the majority. This is currently personified in the chattering media-induced frenzy to find someone to scapegoat for the financial crisis. Now is the time to hush that chattering voice within and without and find the still small voice of calm, to be able to identify the root of the problem: the depletion of our own inner resources, our own energy reserves, and create a climate of change from within. We do not have to fight or combat climate change when we approach it from within. This is not a war on anything. Instead we need to make fundamental adjustments to our assumptions and our modes of living, to make peace with ourselves and our environment.

This is a time of crisis we are told. But panic will not help the crashing financial markets. Only fearless action will. The Chinese ideogram for crisis means both danger and possibility. We must be aware of both as we consider the way forward. Those who were at home, embedded in the old system, whose values were those of material riches and wealth, are faced with a fear of the future which has no comparison in historical times. There is a great stripping away underway which is immensely painful for our large institutions and all of those who are reliant on them for their livings.

This is a time of the death of the culture as we have known it, but the of birth of a new culture, one of greater sustainability, meaning one which we can sustain and which can sustain us. As a culture we have tended to approach both birth and death with fear and trepidation, seeking to numb ourselves and deny the enormous learning of the spirit as it passes through these challenges.

During the early stages of transformation there is dissonance “sharp conflict between new beliefs and old patterns. Like the troubled society struggling to remake itself with old tools and structures, the individual tries at first to improve the situation rather than change it, to reform rather than transform” (The Aquarian Conspiracy). Coming from a culture dominated by money as the central force, there seems to be a belief within current political solutions that the more money that is spent on climate change, the more power we will have, that indeed, climate change can be ‘solved’ by buying and selling units of carbon on the global markets. But all the money in the world, every last cent could not buy climate change without the will of people everywhere.

There are, as Marilyn Ferguson succinctly discusses, potentially four types of change we as a society and as individuals can make. Change by exception which says we are right except for one or two anomalies, which we allow as they do not break the rule completely. This is the habitual reaction of most people, most of the time, it is least threatening for the status quo and for our own sense of rightness, and the identity of the ego which is tied up with that. Incremental change occurs bit by bit and the individual is not aware of having change, they are a passive recipient of change, this, I would argue, is how we have emerged into the full blown capitalist, consumer driven state which we find ourselves inhabiting now. Then there is pendulum change where black becomes white, the hawk becomes a dove, this change fails to integrate the old or discriminate the new, it is an unstable state, rejecting its prior experience and is essentially a going from one kind of half knowing to another. All of these explicitly avoid full transformation. Transformative, or paradigm change refines and integrates, it is not a simple linear effect, but a sudden shift of pattern.

What must happen and dare I say, is quietly taking root now is an inner revolution, a spontaneous paradigm change: one of embodied wisdom and transformation. Not changing our minds but a true change of heart and a new language with which to dream a new vision of a new world. Language must come from our knowing and our knowing is informed by our language. We are our environment, we are a small part of it, and it is a large part of us, we cannot separate ourselves from it: this is the paradigm shift which must occur, requiring us to embody environmentalism and the fundamental changes which are happening. We are being called to respect our environment in a totally new way: re-spect, to look again and see with our inner vision, and from this place we might transform ourselves and our world, living lighter on the earth, in ourselves and with each other.