PROGRESSING PLAN B – A Quarterly Review from Professor Jem Bendell which matches the UBUNTU Model

The 'Deep Adaptation Forum Quarterly' provides a summary of the last three months of news, views, events, and resources in the field of ‘deep adaptation’, presented by Editor and lead writer Dan Vie, with the support of Associate Editor and writer Jessica Groenendijk. It aims to include a broad range of content related to collapse risk, readiness, and response. In it, we take a critical perspective on the culture and systems that have led to our predicament, and celebrate the solidarity amongst people in response. Not only will you read about the interpersonal, but also about activism on related matters. This is of necessity a long read but enlightening: https://mailchi.mp/deepadaptation/deep-adaptation-quarterly-april-2022?e=3657cecf15

'The Scholars Warning' (link) below is focused on climate change, as is Professor Bendell, but needs to expand on other significant causes of the global catastrophe which has befallen us. The roots of our broken systems go back millennia when money was first imposed on naïve humanity and greedy bankers took over control of the world. The rotten roots of this dystopian tree are gradually being exposed as our global financial systems collapse leaving economic and social suffering in its wake.  For many years, Charles Hugh Smith, has charted the course of this sinking ship.  His latest writings are worth noting:

"No matter how unlikely a breakdown might be, the consequences are so dire that it's prudent to prepare a response. Making a plan ahead of time requires no money and only a modest amount of effort. Trying to figure out what to do in a chaotic crisis rarely leads to good results.  Common sense suggests preparing a plan that avoids adversity as much as possible rather than going to ground until adversity has reached maximum disruptive force and then waiting passively for others' decisions to impact you.  Another benefit of preparing Plans A, B and C is that we may conclude that there is much to be gained by taking action before a crisis rather than waiting until the crisis washes ashore. By then, our options will have significantly narrowed."  https://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2022/04/whats-your-plan-b-and-c.html  AND perhaps this guide for the first 100 days will assist in preparing a plan: https://urbansurvivalsite.com/how-to-survive-the-first-100-days-after-a-collapse/

BUT THE GOOD NEWS for those remaining in doubt, Jeff Thomas who generously contributed to my book's Appendices, says this about the coming crisis: "Today, we’re a good bit closer to the onset of an economic crisis and it now not only seems possible, but quite likely to an increasing number of those people who are paying attention.

And not surprisingly, as so many people are now realising the inevitability of such a crisis, they’re also realising that they should have been preparing for it. Preparation for a major event such as this requires a fair bit of time and many people are belatedly coming to realise that they may be caught with their pants down when the initial crashes begin.

Whenever the inevitability of such a debacle is first recognized, the first reaction for most people is to dive into denial, saying, “It simply can’t happen. Nobody would let it happen, because nobody benefits.” But that’s just it. Not only does someone benefit, they’ll benefit on a grand scale." https://internationalman.com/articles/the-benefits-of-economic-collapse/ Remember that the Chinese word for 'crisis' is also 'opportunity'.

I have extracted excerpts from the professor's article that relate to my Plan B which is in progress here in UK and is planned for transfer to South Africa in 2023. Professor Jem Bendell is Founder of Scholars Warning and Publisher of the Deep Adaptation Quarterly. He is supported by a broad range of experts in their fields. Professor Bendell reports a recent personal experience which acutely illustrates our present predicament:

            "I want to tell you of something that has happened for me in the last few months - perhaps it happened for you too. Many friends who I never talked to before about collapse are now considering changing their lives to become less involved in, or dependent on, global markets. Many explain to me their loss of faith in both authorities and business-as-usual. I had already read in opinion surveys that underneath the veneer of mass-mediated hope, people in the West have been anticipating decline.

But now that outlook is becoming a priority for more people. Such a situation is both tremendous and dangerous. Tremendous, because it means people can consciously choose to reduce their participation in a damaging economic system and the sick culture it creates. Dangerous, as people may be open to manipulation about where safety and happiness might be found next.

            That is why now is the time for us to talk to everyone you know about societal breakdown, and how we are integrating our awareness of that into our lives. It is time to demonstrate our positive pessimism, where we find passion for doing what is good and true precisely because the future is going to be more difficult. It is time to help our friends and colleagues learn about the wisdom that can be found amongst people who have grappled with this topic for a while - both emotionally and practically."

In my book, "THE FINANCIAL JIGSAW - PART 1" I used Venezuela as an example of a failing state and added some eye-witness accounts in the Appendices which was relevant at the time of writing in 2020.  Now in 2022 we have another example from which to learn lessons; Lebanon, long forgotten in MSM, lost in the plethora of high profile news, is here in focus - this is what Deep Adaption reports:

The social ecology of collapse: We can take cues for where society is heading by watching countries a few steps further along the road—and plotting our own course corrections. Each issue, DA Quarterly will make collapse more relatable with stories from the Global South, seeking inspiration from early adapters who have no choice but to organize alternatives to the systems failing us.

Lebanon’s faded dream: Yusra Bitar analyses the brutal economic collapse in Lebanon, where 82 percent now live in poverty in a country stripped of resources by an elite of bankers and politicians protected by private militias. Lebanon’s currency has lost 90% of its value since 2019, its basic services are operated by mafias, and its scarce resources are hoarded for the wealthy. Bitar writes, “The crisis is the economy itself and Lebanon is yet another microcosm of this structurally ‘doomed to fail’ global system.”

How can these beaten-down conditions—described by the World Bank as a dangerously depleted and fragile State—become a crisis of opportunity, one which can open up doors for post-growth alternatives? Bitar points to emerging potentials like collectively-controlled energy systems, urban farming movements, and the rise of cycling culture.
 
The Beirut we once knew has gone:  Lebanese journalist Lina Mounzer’s litany of conditions on the street is more harrowing, with days “entirely occupied with the scramble for basic necessities. A life reduced to the logistics of survival, and a population that is physically, mentally and emotionally depleted.” Beirut’s food prices are up 500% in the past year, and there is little bread to be found—there are shortages of water, cooking gas, and medications of every stripe, and government-provided power operates for only one hour per day. And with gunfights in the streets, nowhere is safe—people of means migrate if they can. Mounzer describes it in her own voice. 
            The people of Beirut are making the best of a bad situation in their formerly modern city, and finding ways to adapt to a post-scarcity world. Mounzer rejects accusations of apathy—citizens have been resilient, and did in fact rise up to rebuild civil society: “People paid with their lives and livelihoods for daring to rebel…to believe we are resilient is to take on the burden of finding our own solutions to the basic services the state denies us…to believe we are apathetic is to accept that we are deserving of all this—these fuel lines, these bread lines, these empty pharmacies and stolen bank deposits, this exploded port, and above all these vile and ruthless warlords—as punishment for that apathy.”

For solidarity actions, you can support groups such as URDA, Nation Station, and the many aid efforts that sprang up in the wake of Beirut’s 2020 port explosion. For reportage on current conditions, see the UN’s Crisis Response Plan, and also the Indy journalists at the Beirut-based The Public Source.
 
A cascade of food insecurity: It’s become very evident that countries will need to change their diets, let go of expectations for easy food imports, and seek out rapid innovations to make food systems more secure and localized. If extreme weather patterns (as in the crop simulations from NASA which predict a decade of breadbasket crisis) dovetail with supply chain breakdowns, nations could be pushed over the edge into starvation. Droughts will also wreak havoc on food security—as they did when provoking the Arab Spring and unrest in Syria, which politicized “a lot of very simple farmers and their kids.”

            Wheat prices are a common indicator of geopolitical unrest. As the war in Ukraine disrupts the crop planting cycle, its impacts will ripple across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Since Russia and Ukraine together provide up to 30% of the world’s wheat, countries like Egypt, Lebanon, and Tunisia who critically depend on those sources are scrambling to find affordable exports elsewhere—some governments are too cash-strapped to subsidize their imports. And the FAO’s Food Price Index shows global food costs hit a 10-year high in 2021, jumping world-wide an average of 28% over the previous year. For a bird’s eye view, follow the FAO’s crop monitoring reports.

Like peak oil, peak fertilizer is another metric to watch, in an age of 'nutrient stewardship’ for elements once seen as cheap and limitless. The profits of corporate monoculture ride on the unstable supply of fertilizers like urea (another Ukraine export) and phosphorus, a magic bullet for high crop yields—Morocco holds 70% of the world’s phosphorus reserves, with China, Algeria, and Syria the next biggest. Price spikes on all these commodities will have roll-out effects, and agriculture will need to adapt to keep feeding populations at scale, in particular, shifting to regenerative farming methods as referenced further down in this newsletter. In the coming years, let’s make sure to dedicate local land for food production.

No sacrifice: When we think of climate change activism—and saving Earth in general—we tend to believe that it would entail sacrifice on our part. We must give up meat, give up flying, give up lovely things, comfort, and security. We would be less happy, wouldn’t we?  Let’s consider for a moment: Are we happy now? Is our current consumption truly bringing us fulfillment?  We are not supposed to live like this.

What if, asks Erin Remblance, instead of being unhappy consumers, we became producers, or creators? What if we “use our human energy and ingenuity to create genuine contentment and joy, not fill a void with momentarily pleasurable, but ultimately unsatisfying, “things”?” Not only would this improve the health of the planet, she argues, but it would also make us feel more connected; more alive, she says:

"It is reminiscent of the tale of the Fisherman and the Businessman. The Fisherman already lived a life that dreams are made of. He had time for fishing, his family and friends, rest, music and conviviality. The Businessman wanted him to abandon all of that to create an empire and spend all his best years growing that empire, so that eventually, in retirement, he could go back to living the life of his dreams. How many of us are caught up in that cycle, or more accurately, a system that perpetuates that cycle?"

BUT how are we to get to the New Economy from the fracturing ruins of our present system?  This is where the UBUNTU model, which is being practiced even today, comes to the rescue. For those wishing to know how it works, I can do no more than recommend Michael Tellinger's book, 'UBUNTU'. Here is a brief review from Amazon:

            "UBUNTU Contributionism" – 'A Blueprint For Human Prosperity'. The path that brought us here as a species is not only filled with lies and deception of unimaginable proportion, but also with continuous manipulation of the human race that goes back thousands of years – all controlled by money.

Michael Tellinger has come full circle since his epic “Slave Species of God” in 2006, by proposing a blueprint for the emancipation of the slave species called humanity. Tellinger exposes the previously misunderstood origins of money and the rise of the royal banking elite that have controlled the world for millennia and continue to do so today through the modern banking families.

He points out that money did not evolve from thousands of years of barter and trade, but that it was maliciously introduced to the human race as a tool of absolute control and enslavement. Tellinger makes a strong case that if we do not understand our human origins; we cannot come to terms with why the world is so messed up in the 21st century. He demonstrates that our current situation presents us with a unique opportunity to change the course of our destiny.

Michael Tellinger describes how the ancient African philosophy of UBUNTU will allow us to seamlessly move from a divided, money-driven society, to united communities driven by people, their passion for life and their God-given talents. Coming to terms with our enslavement as a species is critical to discovering the path to full enlightenment. UBUNTU Contributionism presents a solid foundation for a new social structure to take us into a new era of true freedom from financial tyranny and real prosperity on every level of human endeavour.

Find out about the UBUNTU Movement's plan of action called ONE SMALL TOWN; it could change the world. Get involved and become a seed of consciousness and real change in your community https://michaeltellinger.com/ubuntu/