The smallest footprint on nature would be left by a hunter gatherer society, not agricultural societies.

The problem with both of these is that they can only support a limited number of people although agrarian societies can support significantly more people than a hunter/gatherer society. Going back to these forms would necessitate the death of a large chunk of the population.

Mao tried this, in the Great Leap forward. He sent people back into the countryside. An estimted 30m died, mostly from starvation.

My question to Ray would be, if you are not happy with the status quo, come up with a framework that you think suitable and then we can debate.

SInce Roy is not involved in the discussion here, perhaps someone else could come up with something.

My own simplified solution for SL would be a combination of consitutiona;l reform (to eliminate the corruption enshrined in the present constitution and restoring the accountability of government & a market economy. My model would be Singapore.

To elaborate a bit:

1. Constitutional reform, a resturn to Westminster type constitution, with a first past the post (not proportional representation) to decide the winner. The preferential voting system also goes out.
2. The above needs to be allied with spending limits on election campaigns and transparency in fund raising.

This would address the problems of (1) an over-powerful president/executive (2) restore the independence of the judiciary & legislature. This will bring about greater accountability of the executive (essentially the cabinet & the prime minister) Remember that under the Westminister constitution, a Cabinet Minister becomes a part of the executive and can no longer vote with the House (the legislature) to approve bills.

The elimination of the proportionla represntation provides clear winners and enables a government to form a working majority. This eliminates the horse trading allied with bribery (join us for XXX rewards) that the house focuses on real issues instead of eternal machinations to get majorities.

The elimination of the preferential voting system will reduce the amount spent on campaigns (at the moment each candidate has to run a campaign AND the party has to run a campaign. Further campaigns have to be run separately for president & parliament)

Spending limits and transparency in fundraising will go a long way to removing the underworld/criminals from politics. AT the moment both parties are funded mainly by the criminal underworld, who also supply the manpower necessary for electtion campaigns as well as the bodyguards. According to information that I have got, estimates of spending by the UNP on the presidential campaign range from Rs1,000m to Rs,2000m. (Rs.1bn to Rs,2bn) with a similar amount spent by the SLFP. That is US$10m. To put this in context Hillary Clinton has raised only a little more than that in her fundraising efforts. Basically, all funds raised would need to be made public, audited by accountants and available for scrutuny by the public, opposition parties and the Inland Revenue.

There is no way that corporates, donations from the public and member subscriptions can raise that kind of money. The only source of that has thsi type of funding and the willingness to spend (because they are in fact buying political influence – or freedom to conduct their illegal activities) are the organised ciminals.

Who are the associates of politicos? Just read the newspapers. Who is Mervin Silva associated with? Who Bookiepala associated with? VAT scam Kathubdeen is reported to have donated heavily. Naturally, the same lot donate to both parties. This is why we have the crime wave that we are experiencing – the big criminals are above the law, the police concentrate on traffic offences and petty crime.

These steps, together with a strengthening of the bribery commissioners office and the independent commissions will go a long way to taking the dirty money out of the system and with it the influence of the criminals.

I would like to believe we human beings who have invented such beauty in art, creativity in technology, inventiveness in so many ways have the capacity (if only we took the trouble to look for it) to come with ways to improve the standard of living for ALL people and care for the environment at the same time… and NOT have to settle for oppression as a fact of life. Because it doesn’t have to be… in fact, as long as it is, we all suffer and we don’t’ need to…

Is she advocating that India go back to the half century of stagnation that it experienced between 1947 and 1990? How many Indians would want that?

Perhaps, she prefers Burma, where things have been unchanging for many decades?

Or perhaps, the idealised Victorian society or the 1930’s that many seem to be hankering after?

The Mahinda Chinthanaya does seem to fall in line with some, if not all of Roy’s thinking, maybe all that is needed is the implementation of that.

In response to your post “self Colonising” on Consumerism, Exploitation of Natural Resources, Violence and Environmental Crisis I want to post a part from my article which examines the impact of Speed, Overstimulation, Consumerism and Industrialization on our minds and environment. Please read.

The link between Mind and Social / Environmental-Issues.

The fast-paced, consumerist lifestyle of Industrial Society is causing exponential rise in psychological problems besides destroying the environment. All issues are interlinked. Our Minds cannot be peaceful when attention-spans are down to nanoseconds, microseconds and milliseconds. Our Minds cannot be peaceful if we destroy Nature.

Industrial Society Destroys Mind and Environment.

Subject : In a fast society slow emotions become extinct.
Subject : A thinking mind cannot feel.
Subject : Scientific/ Industrial/ Financial thinking destroys the planet.

Emotion is what we experience during gaps in our thinking.

If there are no gaps there is no emotion.

Today people are thinking all the time and are mistaking thought (words/ language) for emotion.

When society switches-over from physical work (agriculture) to mental work (scientific/ industrial/ financial/ fast visuals/ fast words ) the speed of thinking keeps on accelerating and the gaps between thinking go on decreasing.

There comes a time when there are almost no gaps.

People become incapable of experiencing/ tolerating gaps.

Emotion ends.

Man becomes machine.

A society that speeds up mentally experiences every mental slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.

A ( travelling )society that speeds up physically experiences every physical slowing-down as Depression / Anxiety.

A society that entertains itself daily experiences every non-entertaining moment as Depression / Anxiety.

Fast visuals/ words make slow emotions extinct.

Scientific/ Industrial/ Financial thinking destroys emotional circuits.

A fast (large) society cannot feel pain / remorse / empathy.

A fast (large) society will always be cruel to Animals/ Trees/ Air/ Water/ Land and to Itself.

To read the complete article please follow any of these links :

PlanetSave

FreeInfoSociety

ePhilosopher

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