Letters on CeaseFunding to Secretary-General & French President

Letters I mailed today. 

_______________________________________________________________________________

Seattle, WA 98105 USA   

John Perkins, PhD

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April 20, 2020

Hon. Secretary-General António Guterres

℅ Office of the Spokesperson

United Nations, S-233

New York, NY 10017

Re: Global Ceasefire

Dear Secretary-General Guterres:

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your call for a Global Ceasefire on March 23. Let me share a quote and my suggestion for a larger scope to this appeal. 

I am reminded of President’s Dwight D. Eisenhower’s words about the looming military-industrial complex: 

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. 

I suggest that the Global Ceasefire agreement include a clause for a Global Cease Funding. Global Cease Funding means every nation suspends their military spending and uses that enormous amount of resources generously to support health care services, the building of homes, meaningful work projects, and forums for cooperation and sharing. Or in 3 words: living, life, and love.

Nós podemos fazer isso,

_______________________________________________________________________________

Seattle, WA 98105 USA   

John Perkins, PhD

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April 20, 2020

Hon. M. Emmanuel MACRON

President of France

Palais de l'Élysée

55 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré

75008 Paris

France

Re: Global Ceasefire

Dear President Macron:

Thank you for supporting UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s March 23rd call for a Global Ceasefire. Let me share a quote and my suggestion for a larger scope to this appeal. 

I am reminded of President’s Dwight D. Eisenhower’s words about the looming military-industrial complex: 

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. 

I suggest that the Global Ceasefire agreement include a clause for a Global Cease Funding. Global Cease Funding means every nation suspends their military spending and uses that enormous amount of resources generously to support health care services, the building of homes, meaningful work projects, and forums for cooperation and sharing. Or in 3 words: living, life, and love.

Nous pouvons le faire,

Crowdfunding Woes 1

This will be an open series as I "think while blogging" about trust, communication, intent, and everlasting fulfillment in our brave internet world.

I have 2 remaining Indiegogo campaigns I backed. Do I frame them as failed or fraud? Which way I land, for myself and many other backers, means a lot. For example, one project has a backer-launched Facebook page claiming the project is a 'fraud' and pooling our wisdom as to our best next steps.

I think what I'm finding in the legal and business reviews is interesting both personally and for all of us engaged over the internet with people we haven't met asking for our money. Thus, I start this series.

I tallied the crowdfunded projects we've backed: maybe 8. Five 5 came through. Of the 3 outstanding, 2 teeter on the failure/fraud highwire. The other has a high chance of delivering.

One of the best projects was a high-tech scanner built by a team in Hong Kong. Really well done and thought out.

Before I joined Ebay I read several articles. They impressed me with the care they took to understand "trust" between people exchanging money for goods who have never met and didn't share social networks. Mostly, they've gotten it right.

Kickstarter and Indiegogo have run in the opposite direction.

From my experience, crowdfunding is a legal jumble. It will feel like these blogposts are, too, as I track my own developing clarity in public.

Here I find a story from The Guardian: How eBay built a new world on little more than trust
by John Naughton.

Right off, I take issues with "little more than trust." Trust is HUGE. It is the first hurdle we all cross before we reach for our wallets.