Blog 40 Three Points for Peace

Blog 40  Three Points for Peace    A 3-in-1 blog: not the short one we promised last blog.  Sorry. But you could read it in three separate coffee breaks.

1.  Police and the People

As policemen march to the funeral of a fallen police officer, what thoughts lie behind those grim faces? Could it ever be, "My job would be much less dangerous if we could somehow make friends of these people instead of provoking them."

It is challenging, scary thought, but the alternative is escalation, to everybody's peril.

The initiative must probably come from the police, but they should invite/welcome the people they fear to join the discussion.

2 Religious War.  Here's a secret recipe for peace between three religions. Get Christians, Muslims and Jews to start a program - preferably a mass program (no pun intended) -  of reading each others' holy books. Let the people read without guidance from their clergy, and search for the similarities. Most will be hugely surprised. Why exclude the priests, pastors, imams, mullahs and rabbis? Because they would be unable to look for anything but differences.

Maybe I can make that point with six almost random quotations from the Hebrew, Muslim and Christian scriptures. (Two each from  the Kuran, the Christian scriptures and the Hebrew scriptures.) 
Which is which?.
 (For the usual names - Jahweh, God, Allah - I have substituted "the Deity,"

Ready?

1 - Do not behave like those who slandered Moses. The Deity cleared him and he was exalted by the Deity.

2 - Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy. 

3 - Fear the Deity and speak the truth. He will bless your works and forgive you your sins.

4 - To the Deity belong wisdom and power, counselling and understanding.

5 - He will save the children of the needy; he will crush the oppressor.

6 - Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Deity in heaven.

Hint:  The first quotation is from the Kuran, which has lots of other praises for Moses, Joseph, Abraham, Jesus, Mary, Jonah, and other characters well-known to  Jews and Christians.



3. Narrowing the Wealth Gap.   This is the big one; you might want to save it for tomorrow.

Corporations are arguably the chief institutional means by which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer; especially the banking corporations, which create money for buying up assets, but are not  much interested in the poor.

The war between nation states and global corporations is about the world's wealth. At present the corporations are winning the war: wealth- and corporate-friendly governments are in power in most of the world. Need I quote examples? Democratic governments, weighted with debt, are definitely in decline.

The corporate propaganda has done a great job of deceiving people into believing that all their troubles stem from taxation by greedy governments. Not true.

But corporations are not invulnerable.

So, in 250 words, or less, CogsBlogger, how do we reduce the power of corporations over governments?

You can never go back, of course, but try your imagination on this scenario:

On the first Tuesday of every month the names of two corporations are posted, world-wide on social media, with a call to boycott their products, on the understanding that as soon as the corporations change, the boycott will be lifted.

The change required of the named firm would be to surrender the company's charter (which was issued by some government) and replace it with a new charter that contained:

     i  An over-riding social responsibility clause to replace the current exclusive responsibility to shareholders.
   ii.  A clause making all shareholders liable for the corporation's social violations (think BP oil spill, or Bhopal chemical spill), up to 10% of the market value of their share-holdings.
    iii  The issuing of 10% of the corporation's outstanding shares to the national government which issued the charter.  The government, as 10% shareholder, is then to entitled to 10% of the firm's dividends. Just  think, it might be possible for some national governments to abandon corporate taxation altogether. (Wow!)

This is a rough proposal. Lots of improvements and implementation details needed. Not to mention, secrecy at its hatching. Please don't say you saw it first on CogsBlog 40.