Healthy Money Healthy Planet - library.uniteddiversity.coop

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governments. 2 She says that a new identity has started to emerge – namely the
global citizen – even before global government structures have been put in place.
Using the positive aspects of globalisation, the global citizen can transmit and
access innovative ideas at web speed, from greener technologies and local
sustainability to home­grown economies, community­supported agriculture,
local currencies and barter systems, microcredit schemes and new indicators
beyond GDP.
The idea of the global citizen is apparent in the subtitle of futurist John
Naisbitt’s book The Global Paradox spells out a paradox —– The Bigger the World
Economy, the More Powerful its Smallest Players. 3 This also reminds me of an African
proverb one of my friends has at the end of his email signature: ‘If you think
you‘re too small to make a difference, try sleeping in a closed room with a
mosquito.’
Essentially, this means that despite the advance of corporate globalisation,
each individual on the planet still has power. Neither a big government nor a
powerful coterie of international bankers or landowners can reverse people’s
decisions to leave an unsatisfying job, spend more time with their family, change
their eating habits, live nearer their work or simplify their lifestyle. And as the
growing protest against corporate globalisation has shown, people power can still
be effective. This section of the book will show that one of the most effective ways
people can fight against globalisation and unhealthy money systems at an
individual or community level is by reasserting their rights to issue and use their
own local money and own their own banks. As we shall see below, economies at
the local level are as important as those at national and international levels.
Holons and Holarchies