What’s Happening

Yup, still on Koh Phangan, but not for long. Many of you are probably wondering about the political turmoil that has been in the news. The trouble seems to have been confined to Bangkok, a long way from here, where things go on as usual. Anyway, it seems all that was resolved yesterday (Wednesday) with the fall of the government and protestors leaving the airports and government buildings they had occupied for some time. Whether trouble might flare up again seems to depend on what kinds of political changes take place over the next couple weeks and who becomes the new prime minister. One must admire the Thais for their restraint in dealing with that crisis. If it had been the U.S. or Europe, or China, or ____, SWAT teams would have been sent in and lots of blood would have spilt in clearing the place out. After all, profits are more important than people. (Don’t call me cynical, you know it’s true).

We had quite a monsoon season. I was stuck inside my house for three nights and two days because of heavy rains and wind. When the rain stopped the roads were impassable in some spots because of flooding and mud slides. There was a two week stretch with no chance to get to the beach or catch some sun. Over the past week the weather has gradually been improving starting with several days of unsettled weather — lots of wind and clouds — to warmer and clearer weather. Today was the first mostly sunny day in a long time. Maybe that signals an end to this year’s monsoon.

All of that was just as well because I’ve had my nose to the keyboard slaving over the second round edits of my book. My editor at Chelsea Green, Jonathan Teller-Ellsberg, finished his developmental edit of my manuscript and returned it to me with some good suggestions for improvement. I’ve been hammering away at it almost continuously since and I’m feeling good about the results. There’s nothing like the assistance of a professional editor to improve one’s writing. At last it’s finished and I can take a breather for a few weeks. After sending off the revised manuscript this morning I went to the travel office and booked my travel (via boat and bus) to Bangkok. From there I’ll be heading for Chiang Mai in the north. Everyone I speak with who has been there tells me what a great place it is and I have some friends who are there right now.

Recent Publication

Daniel Pinchbeck is the publisher of an online magazine, Reality Sandwich http://www.realitysandwich.com/toward_new_economic_order#comments. At his request I provided an article titled, Toward a New Economic Order, which was published a few days ago. You might want to have a look. I’ve been asked to provide some additional articles with specific how-to-do-it advice, which I’ll be preparing over the coming weeks. Much of that material will be drawn from my new book. The title of the book? Oh, it’s to be called The End of Money and the Future of Civilization.

With the book task competed I got inspired this afternoon to do some maintenance on my website, ReinventingMoney.com. I had to learn some new tricks to manage it but I’m proud to say the mission has been accomplished. I’ve put up a new “welcome” statement and fixed some links to the Worgl case documents that had been broken.

Information

I recently discovered that Hartley Withers’ classic book, The Meaning of Money, has been republished by Kessinger Publishing, LLC and is available through Amazon.com. My copy of the seventh edition, published in 1947, is a treasured part of my personal library. I strongly recommend that any serious student of money and banking should read this book.

On a more general topic, you might want to watch this 16-minute YouTube video by Stefan Molyneux that will coax you further to “take the red pill” and escape the “matrix.” One blogger calls it “the most dangerous video on the internet.” At the conclusion of this polemic against statism, ideology, and religious establishments, Molyneux tells us that it is reason and courage that will set us free. You can find it embedded in my blog, Tom’s News and Views, at http://tomazgreco.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/matrix-realities-modes-of-escape-new-video-offers-inights/.

Feeling Deprived

While to cost of living here is pretty cheap, imports, as you might expect, are quite expensive, even more costly than the same items are back home. Olive oil, for example, a staple of my diet and necessary ingredient for both salad dressing and cooking, costs almost double what I pay at home; same for blue cheese. And I haven’t had a glass of wine since I left California, 5 months ago. The cheapest bottle of wine here runs about $10. Oh, how I miss Trader Joe’s. I’d gladly pay five dollars even for a bottle of “two buck chuck,” if I could find it.

Sex and Islamic Suicide Terrorism

One of my German correspondents sent me a link to a site called the SexParty. No, it’s not an erotic site filled with porn. It’s a political site. The tag line is “Politics for a sex-positive future.” It’s an analysis of the link between Sex and Islamic Suicide Terrorism, which, I think is absolutely correct. The repression of sexuality that was foisted upon me as I was growing up in Catholic schools provides the background from which my own present understanding stems. The article argues (I’m paraphrasing) that when testosterone-driven young males (who constitute the vast majority of suicide bombers) are prevented from expressing their natural sexual urges, they become enraged, unbalanced and inclined to fight. You can read the whole one-page article at http://www.thesexparty.ca/node/82. As the Hippies were wont to say, “Make love, not war.”

Aong similar lines, but not specifically related, here’s a mini-lesson in “compassionate communication.”

The basic NVC approach to communicating has these basic components:

Observation

Feeling

Need

Request

This avoids making judgments or demands. The dialog process is:

Describe the situation,

Describe how it makes you feel,

Let the other person know what you need,

Make a request (but be ready to accept “no.”)

You can find good information on the websites I gave in my last newsletter or do a search on “Non-violent Communication.”

Enough for now.

Tom

Thomas H. Greco, Jr.
+66 82 267 9276 (Thailand)
thg@mindspring.com
Website: http://www.Reinventingmoney.com
Blogs: Beyond Money: http://beyondmoney.net
Tom’s News and Views: http://tomazgreco.wordpress.com
Photo gallery: http://picasaweb.google.com/tomazhg
Skype name: tomazgreco

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 at 10:27 am and is filed under Tom Greco. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.