What is a value exchange system? Is bartering more meaningful than current currencies? How can we deal and transact more efficiently and effectively?
Why is it that someone born in Sierra Leone will have an entry-level job at pennies on the hour while the same aged and abled youngling in Britain will easily make fifty to a hundred times as much, if not more? Can any human being’s time be rationally worth more than another? Our first inclination might be to lean towards their variance in ability level, or perhaps a difference in a mastered skillset in one geographical area vs another. It would then follow to consider why is it so? If the UN was charged with protecting Education, Science and Culture, why is it that one of the most expensive schools in Vietnam is UNIS (United Nations International School)? Quality learning seems to be reserved only for the select classes that can afford it, and this is now almost 8 decades after the 2nd world war? Aside from the lack of access to (quality or even any form of) learning in many nations, why should they accept low currency value when being compensated for their time? Is it not bad enough already that they were not given opportunities to develop their fullest potential, that we must hinder their value exchange capacities as well? This is not to mention the strict visa restrictions that lock these individuals into their nations, often translating into refugees leaving their homes desperately looking for a way out of their predicament?
Does this not all sound like a modern civilized slavery system? Well, that’s what my driver called in when we compared our lives, contrasting just how “rich” we each were. I used to change my monthly per diem into small bills and give him a stack to distribute to all the amputees on our way to the office in Freetown. I used to do it myself until I knew most of them and decided to sit in the back and read my old Sony e-book reader contents instead (which I sadly forgot at a Toronto airport during a long flight home to Ottawa one day). His remark was “You’re different from other rich people” – which led to us exchanging facts on home ownership, family, health, capacity to survive if unemployed and so on. In the end, he realized that he was far richer than I ever was, a single, childless, Lebanese-born Canadian who had climbed the corporate ladder to become a national manager of Professional Services for a large Canadian datacentre company. He realized he would need to work ten lifetimes before he could pay off my mortgage alone, not to mention insurance costs, bank interests and tax obligations. “Civilized slavery” was what he called my life in Canada.
Have you ever considered what change you can contribute, what example you can set, or what ideas you can bring forth to help make your community, city, country or world a better place to live in? If not for you, perhaps for your children, nieces, nephews, students, friends and all generations to come? It’s ok if you haven’t, though I think it’s something nice to aspire to, given how beautiful this earth really is. I stumbled on a project called LinkPower during my stay in Vietnam and have been drawn to its beauty in simplicity. The founder has been building an ecosystem that balances the needs and interests of all citizens in any given community, both on a local and global scale. It could be a great start for immediate and impactful change if her platform is embraced and leveraged by communities everywhere.