Monday 29 December 2008

THE ECONOMIC “END OF DAYS” - NEW YEAR, NEW WORLD

For two thousand years, but especially for the last 100, the world has laboured through the Age of Pisces – masculine times, where leadership and aggression have been paramount, and mankind has followed a model where we needed to be told what to do.

That guidance would be provided by the Church, or the State, or the Military, or by Corporations/Employers, who supposedly “knew” what to do!

Most often this guidance has centred around possession and ownership, either of goods, people, property or lands, with the result that “defence”, and “righteous action” have often been invoked in the name of retention or accumulation.

All these are masculine – ie. (the modern version of) Hunter/Gatherer – traits.

Sales and Marketing, some of the cornerstones of our economy, have for long operated along the same lines. So too has the Banking system.

With the change to the Age of Aquarius, soon after the Millennium, came the opening up of the Internet – a new method of communication, which, in time, has delivered new ways of commerce.

In the last 4 or 5 years specifically, much money has been made, in Banking, Finance, Property and Stock Markets, as well as on the Internet. The common factor being the huge sums made by a small percentage of people, or corporations, always with the promise of riches for many, if they buy this or that affiliate program, or “special offer” – very few of which actually deliver.

Masculinity rules in the Motor World too, and look at the mess that is in, with urgent bail-outs for two of the Big Three in the US. Why? We are tempted to ask when we see the acres of unsold metal parked at strategic points around the various continents, with little likelihood now of it being sold, because the World has moved on from gas-guzzlers.

When we eventually start buying again, we will want fuel-efficient motors, maybe even multi-fuel solutions, with low carbon-impact factors.

This all mounts up to the new frontier we arrive at on December 31st – the World knows it is not well.

It has developed a condition known by ancient peoples as “life out of balance”, what the Hopi Indians call “koyaanisqatsi”. It is time to get back to basics.

We all enter 2009 certain in the knowledge that we need, jointly, to achieve repair and nurturing (whatever we actually choose to call them) on a global scale in order to recover from the economic instability. What we MUST recognise too is that we do NOT want to go back to the way we were.

Several posts appearing recently on Twitter, and thought leader blogs such as that of Chris Brogan, and Jim Connolly, have led me to conclude that the time has come for a “Feminine Economy”, and that it has already begun within the new methods of communication we now use on a daily basis.

In many cases “the job” has represented a “comfort zone”. Many jobs will be lost in the coming 12 months – that only means that the functions are no longer required, the real people who performed those functions are still needed for their own unique contribution, just not by their current “employer”.

The crucial factor is whether those people have recognised what their unique contribution really is. If not, then they too may have a “life out of balance” – the condition that leads to dis-ease, dissatisfaction, anger and resentment at a personal level, just the same as it does at a global level.

Shirley P Burggraf recognised, as far back as 1997, that:-

"In a world in which people are free to choose between caring and competitive roles, an economic system that disproportionately rewards the competitors and beggars the caretakers will eventually lose its ability to compete because resources are increasingly diverted away from society's basic function of providing a civilized context for human life."

“Disasters are a form of opportunity… a time to reinvent, renew, re-envision and re-engineer” according to John T Unger

Rules only exist until new rules are created, so make your own!” said Amrita Chandra recently, writing for the Chris Brogan Blog on What Artists Can Teach Everyone About Social Media.

Now, Social Networking, and the spread of a wide variety of Social Media, suggests that these are the 12 Facets of the “Feminine Economy”, and why it’s time has come:-

  1. Communicative – let’s talk, and commune, more, to learn the others point of view;
  2. Non-Aggressive –wars, and banking crises, all cost a lot of money, and ALL start from posturing;
  3. Intuitive – listen more, learn more, and we will feel & understand more;
  4. Networking – getting together for fun and common interest often drives things forward;
  5. Wisdom – only comes from experience, and trying new ways;
  6. Touch – everything we do, or consume, has an impact (often adverse) on someone, somewhere;
  7. Cafe-Based – chat, gossip maybe, small scale, can still lead to development of ideas;
  8. Social – the more we can reject the anti-social, the more chance there is of a longer lasting solution;
  9. Nurturing – will be essential to grow & thrive again, this time under New Rules;
  10. Heart-Sell – has to replace Hard Sell, because that is what got us in the mess in the first place;
  11. Micro-Finance – the new way for local communities, the whole system needs developing again, differently;
  12. Internet – the Web that brings us all together, to strive towards AND ACHIEVE all of the above.

Time for a change? A New Year’s Resolution? What do you think?

Monday 15 December 2008

Christmas Tickle...

...YOU SHOULD GET A GOOD GIGGLE OUT OF THESE SPELLING MISTAKES!!!!!

Do you ever worry about the NHS at all? You should -

These are sentences actually typed by Medical secretaries in an unnamed UK National Health Service Region:-

1. The patient has no previous history of suicides.

2. Patient has left her white blood cells at another hospital.

3. Patient's medical history has been remarkably insignificant with only a 40 pound weight gain in the past three days.

4. She has no rigors or shaking chills, but her husband states she was very hot in bed last night.

5. Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.

6. On the second day the knee was better and on the third day it disappeared.

7.. The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed.

8. The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.

9. Discharge status:- Alive, but without my permission.

10. Healthy appearing decrepit 69-year old male, mentally alert, but forgetful.

11. Patient had waffles for breakfast and anorexia for lunch.

12. She is numb from her toes down.

13. While in ER, she was examined, x-rated and sent home.

14. The skin was moist and dry.

15. Occasional, constant infrequent headaches.

16. Patient was alert and unresponsive.

17. Rectal examination revealed a normal size thyroid.

18. She stated that she had been constipated for most of her life until she got a divorce.

19. I saw your patient today, who is still under our care for physical
therapy.

20. Both breasts are equal and reactive to light and accommodation.

21 Examination of genitalia reveals that he is circus sized.

22. The lab test indicated abnormal lover function.

23. Skin: somewhat pale, but present.

24. The pelvic exam will be done later on the floor.

25. Large brown stool ambulating in the hall.

26. Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities.

27. When she fainted, her eyes rolled around the room.

28. The patient was in his usual state of good health until his airplane ran out of fuel and crashed.

29. Between you and me, we ought to be able to get this lady pregnant.

30. She slipped on the ice and apparently her legs went in separate directions in early December.

31. Patient was seen in consultation by Dr. Smith, who felt we should sit on the abdomen and I agree.

32. The patient was to have a bowel resection. However, he took a job as a stock broker instead.

33. By the time he was admitted, his rapid heart had stopped, and he was
feeling better.

Stay away from hospitals !