Because of being preoccupied lately, I have not had time to go through Dr Matai's articles. I was thinking of reading them during the weekend and inentblog has made it very easy for me by clubbing them like this. I would like to convey my appreciation.

Hiren

Dear DK

Is this intentblog or atca/dk matai blog? I mean no offense, I'm just wondering........?

Raj

Dear Hiren, thank you.

Dear Raj, IntentBlog in the US and ATCA in Europe have begun liaising with each other to share content and pool interest in regard to addressing complex global challenges.

Trust this helps.

Best wishes


Horatio

Dr Horatio Peppers
Head of Operations -- ATCA

Dear DK,

Thank you for this great intention towards Socratic dialogue :)

In the first place i believe i can learn a lot from it.

In the second place thank you for letting everyone comment and for your kind responses so far.

In the third place, these eleven subjects do so interact with each other that this discussion should be able in my humble opinion to bring a strong united view forward that can give our world the backup so badly needed.

And all good things again in three for me :)

Mieke

Dear DK Matai,

May I suggest the following topics for discussion:

1. Alternative sources of energy. We are likely to fight a third world war over energy in foreseeable future, if not already. The same fight could be over other natural resources such as water, but if we resolve energy crisis, we can resolve all others. We have to take it up on an emergency basis with participation from all of humanity and I don't see why we can't do it over a period of 10 years or so. We can choose from many alternatives: sun, wind, genetically engineered chlorophil etc.

2. Health management. As we live longer, health concerns become more of a burden on all of us because ultimately we share it. We have to evolve a better system of health management, with a lot more resources poured into prevention and healthy living rather treating the symptoms. Health care is a basic need of every human being and capitalist market alone can't solve this conundrum.

3. Better education for all. Today's education system has failed the majority in almost all the countries. Education like health, is a basic human need, and again, we can't rely on pure market forces to determine who gets education and who doesn't. We need to focus a lot more on early years (0-6) and change our model of education from school centric to home centric with parent participation.

Hope to see some ideas on these topics.

Regards,

Ravi Kulkarni

http://www.droppingknowledge.org/bin/dk?ph=overview

Above looks like a similar project. More the better, information revolution, that is. Keep it up ATCA.

Ravi K.,

I agree that we must tackle these "fun"da-mentals before

we can hope to obtain freedom and basic human rights

for everyone alive on this planet.

In His-Story, solutions have a short-term life expectancy.

Whatever we are doing and whatever we have done before,

on a global scale, hasn't been long-lasting.

Can we, as Mieke asks, come to an agreement here on any subject?

If we can, will we be able to better choose and vote

for our official representatives and leaders?

If you ask me, that's a mighty big hurdle, seen from

a freshman's point of view, like mine at IB.

November is closing in, so our time to act

and make a majority decision is relatively short.

I still think it would be great if we could somehow

vote for a majority opinion from the dear readers and posters here.

Complete agreement? Ever? You and I? Funny...

Let us forget the past and forge ahead with the work.

All is forgivable, not necessarily forgetable.

Peace, Keith~

P.S. D.K., We will enjoy these conversations. Thanks!

Mr. Kulkarni,

I must apologise.

As soon as I got up from my chair,

I realised that I had made a mistake, again.

I am sorry, please forgive me for confusing you

with Mr. Kopra...you may feel like that's an insult.

Why is he on my mind, anyway?

.

If you're looking, Mr. Kopra,

I still beg the question.

Peace

Dear Ravi Kulkarni,

I do very much agree with your three topics for discussion.

For the first one, there is already a discussion going on that is very straight to the point on the thread about the New Hydrogen Economy.

Regarding your second point:

About 25 years ago i was a member of a committee that was first introduced by our family doctor in the town i lived in and then founded by his patients, called "council of patients".

The intention was to let patients become more aware of their own responsibility for their health and to start giving information about this through newspapers, lectures and a monthly magazine delivered to each house in our town.
Already then the concern was that health issues were becoming more and more a capitalist market and people becoming too much dependent on this.

In those days my experience has been that there were a few people who understood this message and the rest was mostly focussed on the mistakes that were being made in hospitals etc. etc. I remember how frustrated i felt sometimes.

Yet it made me aware of all the facts that are important in taking a bit more responsibility for yourself as human being and so i was able to spread it a little bit around my next of kin and a few friends. But it still remains a question of becoming aware of it yourself. My father became aware when he was dying of long cancer and made my son promise to stop smoking right away. And so did his own son. And even i who was so aware did not stop smoking at that time!

Usually someone has to experience something really bad in his or her own environment before something changes.

And as LPB already expressed on the Hydrogen thread, it is only now that the topics that really matter are starting to be discussed by a wider audience. So i guess this is the fruit of efforts that have paved the way for this.

I remain optimistic to all three subjects because i do believe that when the need is the highest, the rescue is at hand. Nature will always show us this, as can be seen and understood from the behaviour of our weather. And i would like to quote a sentence from Kate on open thread here to this effect:

""I always marvel how nature can be so strong, a fury that comes with storms, and hurricanes, and yet leave in its passing - what is beautiful and what has been damaged.

It really is the mirror of Life.""
I wholeheartedly agree with this and with the strength of human spirit :)

As for your third topic. The Internet already provides more and more efforts to make this become a reality as noname already pointed out too.

We here in the town where i live now are trying to get more parents interested in exactly what you suggest that has to be done especially for children in the age between 0 and 6. I assume that as we are doing this in a small town in the Netherlands, this must also be a point of concern in many more countries.

Hope and faith and the willingness to keep learning and contributing are my tools at the moment.

Kind regards,

What i can add is that the solution young parents in our country (the Netherlands) have found at the moment is the so-called "Fun Emancipation", whereby both parents decide to work less hours so that they both can take care of the children (at least during this first important period of preschool). Instead of having a father´s day once a year, they now have one or two father´s days a week in the real sense of the words :)

So more and more thirtiers are giving up career making for more quality in their family life.

Dear Keith,

No offense taken. Being spiritual has its advantages, I don't mind being confused with Ravi Kopra, in the final analysis we are ONE.

These issues go way beyond the current elections or local politics. We need to change the entire political discourse towards more sustainable policies. Most of the existing policies are geared towards balancing this year's budget or catering to this or that special interest. Nobody cares for the good of the humanity. Having said that, it is important that all those who have a stake in the future of the humanity better take good hard look at the local politics and take matters into their own hands. Otherwise we will get what we didn't ask for.

Regards,

Ravi Kulkarni

Dear Mieke,

Thanks for your reply. It is very interesting to know how things are in different parts of the world. Taking responsibility for one's own health is a very alien concept to many people. Old habits die hard, and the culture has a lot to do with it. My wife's family (from the south-west coast of India) has a tradition of using home remedies for most minor ailments and they have done a good job imparting this education to the next generation. My own mother in law has neglected her own health, but she has definitely give us the gift of home remedies in good detail. This has helped us maintain a antibiotics and other prescription medicine free home.

Society as a whole has to wake up to the fact that health is a shared goal and people who practice medicine can't be expected to be totally altruistic. They need to make a living too. This self interest often conflicts with the Hyppocratus' first rule of "do no harm". Visiting a doctor should be rare event and the doctor should be able to provide enough time to every patient with a view to provide long term health care; not short term kneejerk symptomatic treatment.

Taking full responsibility for one's own health should become a part of the culture. Appropriate exercise, good diet and healthy living should be taught from a very young age. People, who remain healthy by choice, should be rewarded by providing very low cost health care. People who are lazy and careless by choice should be made to pay. It takes a few generations to achieve this, but it is never too early to start.

Too much money is being spent on curing (actually just maintaining) diseases that shouldn't have taken root in the first place. Even if 10% of that money is spent on researching home remedies and effects of healthy living, healthcare will soon cease to be a concern that it is today. Prevention is much better and easier than cure.

Regards,

Ravi Kulkarni

Dear Ravi,

You are welcome. It is good to read you and your family are aware of this health issue too.

Since the beginning of this year, we here in Holland have a new health insurance which slowly but surely should lead us to more individual responsibility and awareness.

In my days we used to have books around like "Granny knows best" lol