THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

RED
Red was abandoned, left on the streets of Berkeley, California, by
his parents when he was three years old. A young homeless couple
took Red under their wing. They spent a similar combination of
breakdowns as most of their winters in shelter after shelter, because
three days was the limit on how long anyone was allowed to stay. In
the summers they would roam around Telegraph Ave, day in and
day out, searching through dumpsters and garbage cans, looking for
their next meal. No one ever talked to them. No one ever bothered to
stop. One day Red woke up and they were gone. He was seven years
old.
When Red was ten, he met another boy in the same predicament.
This boy's name was Sean. He was 15 and had been homeless since
he was five. Sean arranged his hair in two turquoise Mohawks that
sliced out of his skull side-by-side. The hair dye matched his eyes and
pale skin. He wore a black hooded sweatshirt with drawings and
patches sloppily sewn on everywhere with white dental floss. He
wore chains around his neck, as well as spiced chokers and bracelets.
His nails were neatly painted black. He called himself a gutter punk,
an anarchist, a squatter, a member of society that everyone wanted to
ignore, and for which no one wanted to take responsibility.
Red was captivated by Sean - someone who was like him, someone
else who had been forgotten, erased. Sean became Red's mentor. He
named him Silence Red - Silence because he was always quiet and
Red because it was his favourite colour.
As Red got older, he became part of the society known as the gutter
punks or squatters, the lost children who had lost their families and
come together to form, their own. They never fought among
themselves and rarely caused any trouble. They raged against the
society that had overlooked them. They hated all adults, especially