Just Imagine!

The society has grown so used to the monetary system, that if anyone dares to think of venturing out of this system, he/she is looked upon as a menace to the security and comfort of the rest of the society.

We all know that comfort zones are comfortable and feels secure but are they truly the safe haven that can give us the best we deserve?

Are we willing to leave our comfort zone of monetary system, to think of an alternative system that can eliminate the need for corruption, pollution, exploitation? Will this alternative system be better than our comfort zone?

Imagine.

The Picture, Big or Small?

It is commonly known that one aspect of human trait is that we tend to either process information in the big picture approach or the detailed approach. A person who approaches things from the big picture tend to prefer to know the overall relationships before moving on into the detailed parts. A person who takes the detailed approach goes the other way, by looking into the detailed information before putting them up into a full picture.

Let's take a concrete example of this. Say, if we are to design a car from scratch. A big picture approach will think about the general specifications of the car first like what are the features wanted in the car. After having considered the general specifications, then the person moves on to design the detailed specifications to match the general specifications.

A detailed approach will first design the engine, the gear system, the braking system and so on, each in detail. Having perfected each parts, then the person combines the parts into a whole car.

Now, both approaches have their own pros and cons. And usually, people tend to have the ability to approach things from both perspectives. Let us examine one cons from each approach.

For the big picture approach, there is the risk of lacking the links to make things happen. Say, if the person keeps on to the general specifications of the car, the person may well totally forgot that without a detailed design of the parts, the person cannot complete this car to the said specifications.

For the detailed approach, the risk is in considering one or some of the detailed parts the whole picture, becoming a small [incomplete] picture. It wouldn't be good if you design a super engine and forgot about having the gear box, seats, stirring wheel and so on. You'll have totally missed the point.

Now that we've covered the overall idea (big picture approach), please allow me to go into a detail that stood out to me.

I believe that we are having a small picture pandemic. We were told to focus on one subject area and become the master of the subject area. We were told that we have to focus on the details of things to be successful. We were told that having an ambition to "save, protect, preserve the world" is not clear enough; we have to define whether we want to do it as a medical doctor or a lawyer or an engineer and so on. When we start to think and consider options in decision making, people tell us not to think too much; just focus on what you want to do. And so, many people got stuck in this small picture syndrome.

Say, we want to tackle climate change by working on carbon emission. Sounds like a great thing, right? But what is actually happening? They tell you to buy green points, plant a tree or do something to offset your carbon foot print. And some people happily followed. Yay, we fought against carbon emission! Or did we not? "Why not?" Some may argue, "At least we've done something!", "Every small effort will add up!"

A big picture approach will respond, "I didn't say what you've done is wrong. I'm just saying, it is NOT ENOUGH." The major carbon emissions do not come from household activities! By seeing the details of household contribution as the whole picture, one basically ruled out the overall industrial contribution which is something more urgent that we need to work on!

Another example will be that of genetically modified organisms (GMO), pesticide & herbicide use, use of dangerous chemicals in food processing or as additives. Most small picture syndrome sufferers were misled to believe that if they choose and eat organic, all will be good. How far is this from the truth! GMO pollen do and have contaminated farms out of the GMO fields. As long as GMO is allowed to be out in the open, the threat will be continuous and often hidden from the users. Pesticides & herbicides are so commonly used that they are present in many places that we do not expect them to be.

It is good to eat organic, to support organic farmers to continue their great efforts. However, to say that it is enough, is not acceptable.

I have seen this small picture syndrome often enough to lead me to believe that it is a pandemic. I hope I am wrong. And I hope this article can alert those who have not suffered this syndrome to be aware of it, as well that this may awaken those who were suffering from this syndrome.

Let me repeat again, it is ok to go from details out to the big picture or from the big picture zooming into the details. However, it is a problem when one thinks a detail is the whole picture.

Have a good week ahead, switching back and forth between the big picture and detailed approach.

A Call for Action

"Why this rush to apply this science before testing it? The simple answer is, those promoting it stand to profit enormously from it." - http://www.realfarmacy.com/ge-trees-may-be-even-more-damaging-to-the-environment-than-ge-foods/

This is happening because of the flaw of the socio-economic system, whereby people perceive much benefits from earning from the whole world's loss. Monsanto stands to earn the profit of GE plants, while the whole world has to share the cost in the future.

With every passing moment, many problems from many different fields are threatening our well being. From this threat of GE plants, to loss of arable lands, to great pollution, to more dangerous/questionable additives in our food and so on.

There will be people tackling these issues from various levels and directions. AVOFT looks at all these problems on a meta level and decided that a change in our socio-economical system can wipe out many of these problems. You can join any of these various groups going in with different levels and directions, but your participation is imperative.

If you keep on sitting there, doing nothing, we will only continue down the projected path to destruction. So, please consider joining in AVOFT or any other organisations. One of these ought to relate well with you and allow for your full expression of talents and capabilities to make the world a better place.

You can also like us on Facebook, start your own group, connect & network with us or share our articles with friends.

Another Version of Familiar Truth

An Interview Video on the Problems and Solutions

This is an interview with Jacque Fresco, who came out with the Venus Project. He is very intelligent and has a lot of great ideas. Listen to him and learn more about the current system and how it is impeding the progress that we can all enjoy.


This is another video, demonstrating the difference between a world with trade and without trade.

A Story of 6 People

Say, we have Fred, Larry, Mike, Dave, Joe and Wesley.

Fred is a farmer and he was able to grow 50 kg of various produce. However, due to lack of network and marketing skill, he could not sell his 50 kg of produce off. And the food ended up on his own dining table.

Did Fred create any value? Did Fred earn a profit? Are those 50 kg of produce taxable? Is Fred doing good to the society?

Larry is an artist and he was able to draw many great arts. Similar to Fred, he was not able to sell his work. They ended up lying around his gallery.

Did Larry create any value? Did Larry earn a profit? Are the paintings taxable? Is Larry doing good to the society?

Mike is also an artist. However, Mike has very good people skill and was able to sell off many of his paintings at high price.

Did Mike create any value? Did Mike earn a profit? Are the paintings taxable? Is Mike doing good to the society?

Dave is another farmer and he was able to grow 50 kg of various produce. He was good at selling, being able to sell off his produce at premium prices.

Did Dave create any value? Did Dave earn a profit? Are those 50 kg of produce taxable? Is Dave doing good to the society?

Joe is a real estate broker. He earns his living by matching buyers with sellers.

Did Joe create any value? Did Joe earn a profit? Are Joe's earnings taxable? Is Joe doing good to the society?

Wesley speculates the stock market, buying various shares at lower prices and selling them at higher prices. He earns a decent living this way.

Did Wesley create any value? Did Wesley earn a profit? Are Wesley's earnings taxable? Is Wesley doing good to the society?

This is something to think about over the week...

Short Update on the Problems - Practicality vs Profitability

At first, we thought it was about being practical in technology (referring to the many applied science cases, such as that of DC/AC battle between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla and applications pesticides and herbicides in agriculture).

However, after so many of these cases with so many points of suspicion, we've come to consider the possibility of money being the culprit. People want to be right because they have a monetary stake in it.

The latest news on GMO seem to prove the case. Being truly right about practicality and safety doesn't seem to be the prime concern but profit...

PS: Edison strongly defended DC because he patented his designs and wanted to cash in on these "assets", while Tesla gave out his AC design to public domain, basically destroying Edison's profitability. And it is sad that people remember Edison much more than Tesla.

We Deserve Paradise!

Since I was a little kid, I kept telling myself, "this isn't the way the world is supposed to be!" I've always believed that this version of reality I am living in is an inferior one. It was like I have seen or been to paradise before, and hence I have a comparison.

I could never understand how people accept the inferior reality as it is. In fact, some found ways to exploit the inferiority to their own advantages! I still cannot understand.

People tell me that it was my lack of ability to cope, to adapt to the surrounding. I can't help it but to see the adaptation as the assassination of empathy, sense of guilt and morality.

Why do we need to perpetuate a situation whereby one or the other has to suffer? Why can't we create a situation without suffering?

I refuse all the advice given to me. I refuse to listen to the "experienced", "learned" or "wise". All of them stemmed from the acceptance of status quo, the inferior reality.

We deserve Paradise! I will not settle for anything less. Until all suffering is gone, until we have brought Paradise down to Earth, I cannot rest.

I will not bow down to the selfish or ignorant humans who have no idea what greatness we are all missing out on!

I don't want to wait for my death to find out if there is a Paradise, if there is a world to come. I want to change this world into the world to come!

Look around you, if you say to yourself, "this isn't the way the world is supposed to be!", then come and let us join hands. Together, we can create Paradise and make Paradise exist here on Earth.

To the people who say it is impossible, I will ask, "Have you tried? Have you tried all the available methods?"

We deserve Paradise! Let us create Paradise!

-- by Fun, Initiator of AVOFT

Intelligence - by Nature or by Nurture?

It does seem like the general perception is that intelligence is by nature, i.e. one is either born with the "intelligent genes" or not. However, things can hardly be further from the truth. This perception is actually quite a self-fulfilling prophecy. People who believe they have the "intelligent genes" will go on learning more, expanding their brains and become better while those who don't, will tend to stay stagnated, unwilling to make a move since nothing seem to be able to change their predicament.

Apart from that, education has gotten quite formalised in many places, whereby students rarely read topics outside of the syllabus given in school. Adults also do not read as much as they should to expand their horizon. This general lack of reading means that the brain lacks stimulation to continue growing and hence limit the development of intelligence.

At this point, it should be obvious that we believe nurture plays a greater role in deciding people's intelligence. There are scientific evidences suggesting that children growing up in a more stimulating environments develop better mental ability. These children can do better in tests and are more creative in finding solutions.

In addition to that, the mind is very much malleable. So, by feeding the mind with information and questions to process, the mind will then develop accordingly to cope with the work load. This is like how we build our muscles in gyms. When we exercise our brain cells, they develop further, allowing for more complicated thinking and information storage.

These are some of the activities that we can adopt to increase our intelligence:

• Reading, especially read from different fields
• Exercise, allowing for better blood circulation, bringing oxygen, water and nutrient up to your brain
• Engage in enriching discussions, stimulating your brain cells
• Get enough and proper sleep to allow your brain to repair the "damages" done during waking hours
• Avoid brain cell killing activities such as smoking and binge drinking

As a conclusion, intelligence is strongly influenced by nurture and hence one should maintain a healthy lifestyle to avoid becoming less gifted.

Energy in Change and Progress

Whenever change or improvement is mentioned, some people seem to have a default expectation. To make it easy, let us take a look at this graph:

This expectation is that change is direct and easy. If it is not easy, it is not a progress. However, this cannot be further from the truth. If you have studied chemistry before, the following graph may be very familiar:

Change and progress will always come with an increase in energy exertion, before a "chemical reaction" can happen and change the fundamental structure necessary for true progress to happen.

We believe it will be the same of AVOFT System. There will be various challenges and problems along the way. People may not believe that AVOFT System is a solution to the world's problems, which is a good thing to us if they are thinking of other alternatives. Whether AVOFT System is a solution or not, we need to change our course before the damage is too deep and too bad for any reparation.

A Hypothesis on the Origin of Modern Civilisation

This is a hypothesis contributed by a friend.

There are several ways early humans obtain food, in no particular order, they are:

• gather
• hunt
• nomadic
• agriculture

Based on agricultural model, does it make sense to build permanent buildings, create sustainable cycles in various aspects? It doesn't make much sense for a agricultural society to keep moving around, so usually agricultural societies tend to focus on making good use of local resources and settling down on a specific location. Now, let us change our focus to the nomads.

How do nomads generally sustain their lives?

1. Herd and control livestock, bring them to places with grass to graze.
2. When grazing land ran out of grass and filled with manure, move on to a new pasture.
3. Repeat step 2.

It is an acceptable theory that civilisation correlates with agriculture. However, if we take a careful look at the above two paragraphs and compare with our modern day civilisation, there is an anomaly.

Look at how we are utilising the world and her resources and you can see that we are basically running the nomad model instead of the agricultural model. We are stripping mother earth of natural resources, using them wantonly and leaving behind them wastelands!

And this talk about finding another habitable planet out there, isn't this like the nomad who has stripped the land of grass and is looking for another pasture?

Well, sadly, as of now, we only have this planet. Do we want to keep stripping this planet of all the natural resources? Or do we want to slow down and turn into a more agricultural model, building something more sustainable?

We need to start making the change now, before it is too late to halt the downward spiral to destruction of the habitability of this planet.

Life is unfair, just accept it?

There seem to be an obsession to look at the world as being unfair.

Men don't get to suffer the pain of birth, that's unfair.

Larry has a pretty girlfriend, I am still alone, life's unfair.

Fred is born in a rich family, life's unfair.

Michael is successful in his business, life's unfair.

"Life is unfair, just accept it" is one common advice given to people. However, this advice is a trap. This statement causes myopia, commonly known as shortsightedness. By saying life is unfair, one focuses on a particular event and judge the rest based on it.

Yes, men don't get to suffer the pain of birth. Neither do men enjoy the close bonds with babies. Neither do men get several months of pampering love from all members of family during the months of pregnancy. It is only unfair when you focus solely on the pain of birth. Once you pull yourself away and look at the whole picture, the truth is we don't know if it is fair or unfair. There are too many factors and things to consider.

Instead of focusing on fairness of life, why not focus on how to make life happier and better? Women can focus on the plus points of birth to make the pain worth it. The men can acknowledge the pain women went through and refrain from commenting negatively if the women refuse to have more babies.

The same sort of analysis can be used for all cases of "life is unfair". The focus will always be focused on a minor part and the whole picture is lost. By looking at the whole picture, one can easily acknowledge that one doesn't know for sure and deal with it as such.

Blaming life or the other party on unfairness is just not helpful. But we can find ways to deal with these feelings and balance out the challenges that nature or chance throws at us.

The Solutions - An Illustration on Food

In order for AVOFT system to be implemented, abundance is a very important aspect. So, this is an illustration of how we can create abundance and bring forth the transition into the AVOFT system.

We will want to see leaderships in the opening of the floodgates of knowledge. There are many farming and gardening methods, suitable for different situation and temperaments of the growers. So, there will be groups working on creating wiki pages on these techniques, outlining their details as well as their pros and cons. This will allow for the general public to easily gain access to this pool of knowledge and making their farm/garden productive.

There will also be pages on the uses of the plants, common and less known ones. By listing out these plants, we will be able to popularise some less popular plants and hence creating more options to grow and eat.

Alongside with these, there will be people working on the hands on of growing food. We have people who are truly into farming to get a plot of land in the country and do larger scale farming. People can then, either travel to the farm to obtain the produce, or to have the farmers ship out to distribution centres in town.

Then there will be a category of people who loves to grow things but are unwilling to travel too far out of the urban setting. These people can work with urban farming, growing larger scale production in the city. Aeroponic, hydroponic and various techniques can be used to make use of space, especially vertical space of high rise buildings.

In addition to that, individuals who are not interested in large scale farming can have their own private home gardens, growing food they like and want, at their own pace and rate. These are more like hobby growers.

Then there will also be people who are more people oriented, working into community farming, bringing people together, doing various farming tasks together. There can be various activities like weed blitzing, whereby the people congregate at an agreed time and day to do weeding in a particular plot. This will make weeding fun and social, instead of mundane and hard.

Before the implementation of AVOFT system in a full sense, most likely these groups will have to operate commercially, as social enterprise or as vehicles for charity bodies. All these groups will be totally autonomy groups, operating with their own leaderships. They can, of course, be affiliate with AVOFT System by holding our values and goals in mind. But AVOFT will not dictate how they choose to operate.

With the springing up of more food growers around us, we will get more reassurance that we don't really have food crisis and we don't have to put a price tag to our food anymore.

Imagine if the same effort is done in various areas. This is a possibility. There will be areas we have overlooked here but we are sure if we all keep on working on it, we will realise the flaws and work our way to solve them.

We hope this provide a clearer illustration of how AVOFT system is a possibility. Remember that AVOFT system is not a utopian system. People are still expected to "work", albeit in their passion and based to a certain degree on necessity.

A Good Presentation of the Problems

This almost-3-hour video presented some of the Problems very clearly and can definitely add perspective to the viewers. Though we do not fully agree with the solutions proposed as there are aspects that we think may end up causing some problems, effort to work out viable alternatives is our prime target now. We don't claim to have a perfect system ourselves, so we hope that discerning readers can give us feedback and work out their own ideas to contribute to efforts [with us or by themselves] in changing the current course of world development.

AVOFT is also not affiliated with the Zeitgeist Movement or the Venus Project. This video is only intended to demonstrate some of the Problems that we have similarly identified, as well as to inspire people to participate in various efforts to stop the current trend toward destruction.

[note that the video does have irritating background buzzing during certain intervals, switching on the caption and lowering the volume may make your viewing more pleasant.]

The Blame Mentality

There were several occasions that we have been accused of blaming the system to justify poverty, crime and sloth, making an article addressing this issue necessary.

Claim #1, participation in politics and various activities to call for ethical, green policies and so on are good. But they are NOT ENOUGH.

Claim #2, our socio-economic system as a whole is flawed. Working things on any lower levels, such as politics, will only address the symptoms.

Claim #3, we do not hold that criminals or lazy people are justified to be so in the current flawed system. What we are saying, is that the current system tip the balance to encouraging such people, causing a lot of damage to the health of the society.

Claim #4, by changing the system, the balance is restored, and hence people can act truer to their hearts.

Claim #5, we believe that people, in general, are great in hearts and intentions.

Claim #6, the system CAN be changed.

Very often, in discussion, people keep accusing us on blaming the system, so much so that we are beginning to question, “Are you the one holding the blame mentality, blaming the victims, criminals and sloths, so that you don't have to be held responsible at all?”

We do not believe in blaming the system nor the people. If we do, we'd be ranting on and on about injustice, without doing anything. We believe in finding out the root causes of problems and work on solving them.

For the knowledge of all, we are doing all we can, finding all cracks and crevices within our access to affecting changes, at any level possible for us. As it is, we are working on the first phase, which is to develop a coherent alternative system. Concurrently, we are also working on creating abundance in food sources. Our reach and effect may be small now but we are doing something. Other people are doing other things that we know can be very useful for society in the future too.

Let us reiterate:

We are telling you that we think the system is flawed. We want to change it. And we are working toward changing the system.

So, please, no blame mentality. We don't have time for that. The clock is ticking, the world is closing in on destruction beyond return as it is. DO SOMETHING!

Ethical Studies

“There are two wolves fighting in everyone of us, one is Good and the other Evil. The one who will win, is the one you feed.” - Editted version of a Cherokee Legend

There is always a need to remind us of the goodness in each and everyone of us. It is said in many psychological studies that whatever we put our focus on, it is that which will influence us. The mind is very malleable and hence a constant feed of healthy thoughts and actions is a very necessary ingredient for each and everyone of us to shine brightly.

There is a Chinese idiom, a man who doesn't read for three days will have a face that is hated/hateful (三日不讀書，面目可憎). This is to say that, when one is no longer receiving positive feed from the classic texts, it is easy for one to be tempted by the various evils of the world.

This is a very important factor to counteract the lack of empathy in the current society, whereby many people focus only for the benefits and well being of themselves. Also, it is worthy of note that this is the negative feed the society is giving to us as we speak.

The columnist who tells you how you need to defend yourself against the politics of your office. The drama series that show how people are greedy and would do all sorts of evil to attain wealth. The news that speak of mindless massacres happening here and there, by random mad people. The friends who tell you to go have some fun with that pretty girl you've just met. Business partners who no longer believe in creating values for the society but rather creating demands and sales for your products.

We see negative examples in the society everyday. Negative feed to our emotions and mental well being. It is paramount to realise this, as well as to realise that we can counteract this effect by ethical studies.

However, we have an awkward situation with ethical studies here. Ethics is almost always linked with religion, as it seems, to many, that human are unable to be ethical without the interference of religion. Even systems of ethics like Confucianism & Taoism have been religionised, for the lack of ability to relate with ethics without involving religion.

This is not a very healthy thing, as it will cause two major problems.
#1, people who are religious will see secular people as immoral and unethical. Such a view cannot be accepted, because people who don't have a religion can still be very ethical. Just like the criticism given by the secularists that religious people can be unethical. Ethics and religions do not correlate as much as people have made themselves to believe.

#2, people who are secular and do not wish to be labelled as religious may do immoral or unethical things just to state their stance. This is a sad effect of several possibilities, such as religious extremism, confusion between relationship of relgious devotion and ethics.

The opposition here is the automatic assumption that a person is considered moral and ethical only if the person is religious, i.e without being religious, a person is taken automatically as immoral and unethical. So, it is hoped that the readers will realise that despite ethics is a major part of most religions, ethics need not necessarily be linked with religion.

In order for a more universal participation, it is preferable to have non-religious ethical studies. However, this will greatly limit the available sources for study. So, a simple model is proposed to overcome this problem: take theology off the topic and focus on morality and ethics.

An example:
In the book of Genesis of the Jewish and Christian bible, was recorded of two generations that will be discussed here, namely the generation of Noah and the generation of the Tower of Babel.

In the generation of Noah, it was described that "the earth was filled with violence" (Gen 6:11) and the whole generation except for the family of Noah was wiped out.

In the generation of Tower of Babel, it was described that "the whole earth was of one language and of one speech" (Gen 11:1) and "they said: 'Come, let us build us a city, and a tower, with its top in heaven, and let us make us a name; lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.'" (Gen 11:4). It was being implied that the people were rebelling against God and their language was confused into many languages.

From a human standpoint, which of the generations made a worse mistake? Some will be inclined to say that it is the generation of the Tower of Babel, as these people were rebelling against God which created them.

However, from a human standpoint, which of the generations got the worse punishment? Now, most people will start to be puzzled. Why was the generation of Noah wiped out while the generation of Tower of Babel were merely confounded?

From the two stories, it can be deduced that there is the possibility that treating humans with love and kindness is much more important than trying to “please” God with what we now know as religions. So, the ethical point made here is that it is more important to treat humans with respect than to “treat” God with “respect”, as what we deem as respecting God may not be the right way at all, as seen in some religious extremists that ended up with suicide bombing in the name of God.

Following this simple story and deduction, the focus of the audience can be put into how we can treat each other with love and respect without being in direct contradiction to one's beliefs, instead of trying to convince each other to their own beliefs.

Notice also that, in the story, nothing is said about who God is and the ways God execute His actions. The focus is on the fact that we are told two stories and what we can possibly learn from the stories. One can find similar examples in other sources.

A non-religious source with similar message to treat humans with respect is that of Emmanuel Kant's 3 Maxims. The first maxim is universality. If something is acceptable if done by the whole wide world, then likely it is not unethical. For example, is it acceptable to cut queues? Imagine if everyone cuts any queues they get into. This will end up with disaster, hence it is considered unethical.

Consider a different scenario, if someone approaches the queue from the tail end, asking each of the person in front for permission to swap location because of a valid reason. Now, if everyone with valid reasons ask for permission to swap position with the person in front, is this an acceptable scenario? Given that the right of the person in front is retained, i.e. the person can decide to swap or maintain as the person deem fit, then this is acceptable and hence this act of asking for permission to swap position is an acceptable act. No one else in the queue lose or gain anything, except for the two parties who decided to swap position. This maxim puts a strong focus on respecting each other, as we will automatically reject behaviours that are unacceptable for us to be adopted by ourselves.

The second maxim is that humans should be considered as the ends and not the means to some ends. This means that we are to treat people as people, not tools to achieve our own agenda. This maxim directly puts the emphasise on humans.

The third maxim is that of duty. Each and every person should take the responsibility on the actions taken by themselves. We have to be our own ethical police and guard ourselves against unethical acts as we have the ability to think and draw conclusions. If we were to act as we wish, then we will be of no difference from any animals you can find, acting on instinct and urges.

As demonstrated above, simple lessons can come in many forms in many context. It pays for us to study and gain affinity to these lessons and examples, so that they can inculcate in us a natural positive and ethical response to challenges we face in life.

Let's reiterate the major points:

• Ethical studies keep us reminded and influence us toward positive actions
• Equating ethics with religion or religion with ethics can be disastrous
• We can make use of ethical examples from both religious and non-religious sources
• We can make the world a better place

With this, it is hoped that we have provided enough information for you all to have enough information on the importance of ethical studies and be able to focus on ethical studies without being sucked into deep religious debates.

Over standardisation

In our current system, there seem to be an obsession to standardisation. Medicine must be given in standard dose, products must be standardised so that each and every one of them has as little difference as possible, standard university entrance exam, standard crops and so on.

Admittedly, there are advantages to standardisation, such as accuracy of scientific testing, matching components in production of items (such as car parts, we don't want car parts that can be assembled) and so on.

However, when standardisation is applied across the board in all aspects and in all industry, it can mean problem. One size doesn't fit all. This is the reality. So, let us take a look at where over standardisation may be an issue.

Medicine/Health
It may be good to standardised synthetic or extracted medicine, this will be helpful for the doctors and pharmacists in deciding dosage. However, it will become problematic if there is a view of standardised patient, i.e. all patients are taken as same and equal in all aspect. Prescription given without taking into account of the history of the patients can be disastrous.

Another possible issue is the lost of the art of herbalism. With the need to standardise all dosage and active ingredient, herbalists who use non-standard dosage/application are discredited as "unprofessional". But unbeknownst to the some of the critics, to the herbalists a synergistic and holistic approach is more important, i.e. observing the patient as a person and customising the dosage according to the the person and condition of the disease.

Agriculture
The standardisation of crops have led to the extinction of many varieties of wheat, corn, potatoes and so on. This is an excerpt from National Geographic:

Food varieties extinction is happening all over the world—and it’s happening fast. In the United States an estimated 90 percent of our historic fruit and vegetable varieties have vanished. Of the 7,000 apple varieties that were grown in the 1800s, fewer than a hundred remain. In the Philippines thousands of varieties of rice once thrived; now only up to a hundred are grown there. In China 90 percent of the wheat varieties cultivated just a century ago have disappeared. Experts estimate that we have lost more than half of the world’s food varieties over the past century. As for the 8,000 known livestock breeds, 1,600 are endangered or already extinct.

Why is this an issue? Nature made all species in many varieties because this is an insurance against species-wide extinction. By having varieties, a species can have varieties that can stand drought better or more able to withstand pest. These different qualities help keep the species as a whole alive.

By culling off many varieties, we run the risk of having one crop species being wiped out if we are faced with some environmental or biological threat.

Dull Life
Imagine, how much do fashion, tech hype and so on force some sort of standardisation onto us? If someone is not following the current trend, they become an outcast! We are expected by the society to be the same, from the way we dress to the way we behave. This is not the way life is supposed to be.

We need to be more accepting of differences. Each of us have different social and education backgrounds, as well as genetic make ups, giving rise to very different perceptions and behaviours. We have to be learn to respect the differences, if we want to live in peace together without sacrificing our individuality.

There are many other areas where over standardisation can become an issue. We need to learn to take the middle path, knowing when it is good to have standardisation and when not to have it.

Important Areas to Work On

Having done some thinking, this is a sketch of the important areas necessary in the creation of abundance, as well as for the AVOFT system to be implemented.

We will need various leaders to work on various areas. If you have any ideas or passions in working in any of these areas, we welcome you to join us in this effort.

Why charities, green efforts and various attempts to make the world a better place is futile?

The system is inherently flawed. Consider this, if you are allowed to use only integers, such as using the number of cars, you will definitely be unable to process some fractions accurately. You can't split 3 cars to 4 people fairly. This is an inherent flaw in the system (integer) used and problems can arise from it (error in fraction processing).

Similarly, our economic model is flawed, in several ways, that charity, green efforts and attempts to improve on the current model will not be successful. There may be some degree of success but nothing near being able to remove the problems. It is like having some genetic disorders, you can only control and possibly alleviate the problems but nothing seems to be able to cure it.

Some of the most common suggested solutions are to vote for a better government, to pass better policies, to promote more green movements and to pull in more people in doing charity work. All of these are merely reactions toward the symptoms and will not remove the causes of problems from the society. As long as the current system is intact, it will be subjected to many abuses by many parties, just so each may have a chance of getting an edge in survival and preservation of one's benefits.

In order for actual improvement to happen, things must change at the very fundamental level, i.e. the assumptions and basic framework. The capitalist, consumerist and selfish assumptions and framework that we are all in now are the biggest hurdle for us to jump across. Many people do not even dare to imagine challenging these because they have became the holy guide to riches, set forth by example by many of the richest people around the globe.

People are so used to either playing by the rules or breaking the rules within another set of rules that they no longer realise that the greater background rules must be re-written, in order for the world to be a better, greener and friendlier place.

What exactly is wrong with the current system, some might ask. The answer is, almost everything. So much of what we are so used to is problematic that we accept that this is the way life is. The problems are so interconnected that there isn't a place that can make a coherent introduction to the problem. However, it will not be fit if some attempts of clarifying the problems are not made.

Guarantee and security. Most people will only do charity when they deem they have sufficient excess in resources or that the risks they are taking are small enough, such as committing to a few days of charity work. This is because in the current socio-economic system, there is no guarantee for anyone at all. Everyone has to look after themselves. If one man dedicate his life to charity work and things aren't doing well, there is no guarantee that anyone will give him help. If one woman who has donated much of her time and money to various charities suddenly finds herself with a business crisis and on the verge of bankruptcy, there is no guarantee that people will help her based on the virtues she has done. In fact, it is quite common in the current situation for people to blame this man and woman for being stupid and not look after their own well being properly!

This leads us to the second problem, related to the first one, blaming the victims. It is all too easy to blame the victims. You got raped? That's because you wore too little. You are poor? That's because you didn't work hard enough. You are sick? Why didn't you take care of your health?

This syndrome of blaming the victims stem partially from the selfish standpoint that we are all too used to. The lack of security and guarantee by the society have led us to be selfish, looking only after ourselves. And so, it is getting harder for us to relate objectively to the plight of the other parties. This syndrome impedes the progress of a lot of charities and green efforts.

This lack of security and guarantee also lead to another problem, it's all about the money. Everyone's focus is on money that many forgot that money is just perceived value. Big corporations and rich people usually do charity or participate in green efforts for certain gains, such as reputation, branding, tax deduction and so on. So, the actual cause of helping people become secondary and resources can easily get wasted or for corruption to happen in the process.

It is also very easy to perceive 10 dollars as being of similar value for everyone. However, for some, 10 dollars can potentially help them toward breaking the vicious cycle of getting poorer/sicker and hence be able to contribute more back to the society. For many others, the 10 dollars may end up as part of the cost to purchase luxuries. The perceived values are the same, 10 dollars, but the actual values are very different.

Money basically clouds the whole picture, because most people have to look after themselves in the current system. There are, undeniably, many who go into charity and green efforts truly for such causes. However, the fact that money is required for all aspects slows down the whole process. Grants need to be sought, proper distribution mechanisms must be applied to avoid corruptions by people who care more for their own profits. If grants are to be sought, the proposal must then bring forth enough perceived values to justify the grants. This will limit the efforts to be focused on smaller chunks of the causes to ensure that results can be delivered. No one can ask for grants to solve poverty on a global level, not even on a national level, but most can make it by helping a few families or even neighbourhoods.

Bureaucracy. How much time, money and effort is wasted on bureaucracy? Many efforts ended up being small scale because they can't get through the bureaucratic wall. There are also those who took strong stance in their effort that ended up being called criminals as they are being pushed to the edge by various issues.

One last reason that we have to discuss is conflict of interest. It is to the interest of countries with oil and gas, as well as those corporations involved in the oil and gas industry, to ensure that no green energy can replace oil and gas before they squeeze out the very last cent from this free natural resource. It is also to the interest of banks to have people poor enough to take loans but not so poor as to be unable to pay back the loans. It is to the interest of the government that the citizens are not so well educated that the people can realise and escape the control of the government. There are also various other conspiracies, so many that it is hard to tell which makes sense and which does not. However, it can be accepted that there are various major and minor conflicts of interest blocking the ways of charity and green efforts.

This is especially visible when we talk about making changes that will cause people who have unrightfully gained to lose this “power”. Consider one of the biggest changes: the release of slaves. How many have died because of this cause? How many have been maimed? Why were there so much resistance? The “owners” of slaves have unrightfully gained from holding these slaves hostage. Releasing the slaves will mean losing their power over these slaves. It took a lot of effort, a lot of fighting and dying, for such a change to happen. There are still many causes in this world worthy of supporting but most dare not push this far. Is the price well worth it?

If we use the current system, trying to improve it, then likely a similar price of deaths, fights and turmoil needs to be paid. At Another Version of Familiar Truth (AVOFT), what we suggest is we work on creating a pathway to make fundamental changes to the system, from the current capitalist & selfish system to that of a goodwill & charity system. The fundamental thing is to ensure that basic living is guaranteed for free. This will then free up many people and resources to do more to create abundance for the society and to create green systems that will ensure the survival of all. It is the hope of AVOFT that this can then create a positive cycle, with excess to further build up a better world. The vision is that at one point, people will be able to pursue their various passions and creating values for the society at the same time, without the constraint of money and basic survival.

More on Problems

Greed. Greed happens because no one's well being is guaranteed. In the current system, the moment anything happens to you, be it an accident or a terminal disease, you will become a liability and no one will be interested to take care of you. When one feels no security in life, one will have to buckle up, and create security for oneself. The most obvious way in the current system: greed, hoarding of money, by either legal or illegal means, ethical or unethical means.

Greed is a natural response to the current system. We cannot blame people for loving money because it is the only way people can gain some form of security in the current system.

Cost externalisation. If we can keep the cost out of our hands, then we keep the cost out. This is why it is good for some parties to promote things that aren't really good for us as if they are good for us. The cost is not theirs to pay! Imagine a piece of bread with a label stating “colouring” before “salt”, meaning that the piece of bread has more colouring in it than salt. Read your labels carefully and you might see this. Consider this too, a pack of chips with colourings and flavourings. These are companies externalising their costs to us, the consumers. Colourings and flavourings, to them, mean lower raw ingredient cost and higher presentability for higher sales volume. However, colourings and flavourings, to us, mean potential health hazard!

This is a problem with several possible causes. Among them is greed. Another one is because the current system of accounting does not record externalised costs. The shareholders/directors only see the numbers on the financial reports. As long as the reports show lower expenses and/or higher revenues, they are happy. The fact that the processes involved in converting expenses into revenues are causing harm to others may escape the scrutiny of these people. Hence, they may not feel any guilt.

Corruption. Many of the people in power, be it in the highest or the middle positions of power, have grown used to the ease of using the loopholes in the current system in accumulating wealth. Some have even got so addicted to it that they are willing to do very immoral and unethical things to keep themselves in power or gain more power. This has been going on for so many years that any effort at any level to make changes against corruption will be met with resistance at all other levels. The more levels that are involved in making changes, the more likely improvement can be achieved. However, as long as there are benefits to be taken, there will be risk takers who will go for corruption in order to gain an upper hand.

The way money flows. Capitalism dictates that those with assets will be able to grow more assets and the primary asset is money. The banks have money and they charge interest for any forms of loan they can think of. Credit card, business loan, car loan, house mortgage and so on. Whenever we take out a loan, we need to use the loan to produce value, in order to be able to pay back the loan. If the loan produces an excess of value for us after we pay back the loan, then all is good with us. However, if the loan produces a deficit, then we will be personally in toruble.

Let's take a look at the greater system. The government and/or the bank decide on the interest rates of loans. Now, some loans do not create apparent values, such as house mortgage (for people who do actually live in the houses and not for “investment” purpose) and car loans. Given that these values aren't apparent, the borrowers can easily get trapped into deficits without knowing it. And being in such a situation, it is easy for one to lower moral standards for survival. This can, of course, easily be “solved” with financial education on the side of the borrowers. However, it is the banks' best interest to “enslave” as many borrowers as they can, so that they can make more profits! And so, the race to expose and hide this money flow problem takes place. The technical aspects of loans and other financial tools become more and more sophisticate to hide and distort the ability to gauge accurately.

Also, not everyone has the sophistication and time to understand the details of financial literacy. Hence, the problem cannot be solved as easily as initially suggested.

There are also aspects of the financial system that can be categorised as zero-sum game. A zero-sum game is a situation whereby the total amount earned by certain parties is equal with the total amount losed by other parties. Gambling is the classic example for a zero-sum game. The amount won by one player is the loss of another.

Some examples of the financial sectors that can become zero-sum games are the secondary stock markets and derivative markets. There are many people who get sucked into making profits [or attempting to make profit] in these zero-sum games that they are actually leeching money off people who may have earned their money honestly.

The way things are traded, will cause money to flow wherever there are perceived values. Actual values get obscured in the process.

The problems are very inherent in the system and are often interlinked. There is no easy way to solve these problems and all efforts up till now seem to be quite futile, providing only minor symptomatic reliefs to small areas here and there. So, AVOFT is proposing a total replacement of the current system, in hope of eliminating the inherent flaws. There is no guarantee that there will be no more inherent flaws in the new system that we will all be developing. But there is a hope that the inherent problems may be more manageable and less threatening.

The Problems - Story of Stuff

There are many points in this video, some you may agree, others you may not. But the video definitely raised up a few points that we must look into if we want to continue living in this planet. So, we'll discuss some of the points raised in the video and see the bigger picture of the Current System.

These are the points that are worthy of note but not directly related to the core problems we need to discuss:
1. Linear system with limited resources.
In the Current System, profit and "survival" are the only important things. People involved in production, especially the bosses, do not really care if they are trashing the world. They need the profit to "survive". Survival used to be about having food on the table, a place for shelter when the weather is bad. However, in the Current System, the definition of survival has mutated. One has to have a smartphone, the latest fashion and so on to "survive". And hence, we mine the world more and more, just to keep us "alive".

Another thing is that people are almost always involved in only a small chunk of the whole system. How can one perceive and contribute to a circular system if all one is involved in is only a small part of the whole system? Imagine a very big circle and if you focus on 1% of the circle and that is the region where you are involved in the whole system. Do you see the circle? No, you won't. All you can see is just a curved linear line. This is a problem we call over specialisation (We hope to come out with an article on this soon in the future). And one cannot see the whole ecological impact without being more involved with all the aspects of the whole system.

2. They don't own the resources, they don't own the means of production and they are not buying a lot of the stuffs. You don't have value if you don't buy/produce a lot.
The current economic model dictates that we need to produce and purchase in order to keep the economy healthy. But then, the more we produce and buy, the more we are trashing the planet and the more unstable the economy seems to be!

This trend of taking over and exploiting external resources isn't new. It started with nations taking over nations in order to secure resources. At one point, the nations realised that war is not the most efficient way of gaining resources. Hence, they used trade and economic techniques. And with the use of trade, the suffering and exploitation of another place's resources are no longer visible and hence easily got out of hand.

3. Toxin in, toxin out.
In order to cut cost and retain profit, cheap toxic materials are preferred over expensive safe materials.

4. People have no choice but to work with toxins.
This relates to the commodification of humans. In the capitalism system, a person is considered a business entity, able to exchange its products and services for money. And a person can own businesses (read as businesses and humans). Soon, people learn to capitalise on this that they begin to treat other people as assets to generate income. Whoever has more power, capital, status and so on get to capitalise on other people.

On a side note, the commodification of animals is one of the core factor that there are incidences of animal cruelty happening in farms and slaughterhouses. People accept the animals as commodities and people expect commodities to do what they want them to do.

5. Planned & perceived obsolescence.
By getting things obsolete as fast as possible, one gets to sell more and earn more. It's all about the profit.

6. Recycling is not enough.
We can't agree more. This is a cure to one of the many symptoms, the root problem is still causing a whole lot of havoc.

Now, let's get into the main point of the Current System.
The Golden Arrow - Consumerism
The main flaw in the Current System is the assumption that we need to spend, buy & consume in order to keep the economy going & growing. Of course, without consuming, the big corporations won't survive for long. One major question is, do we need these giant corporations around? Are they truly doing us good? If yes, how? If not, why are we working so hard to keep them alive? It is this relationship between giant corporations, their interests & economy that is driving us to the direction of destruction.

Let us take a look back at this assumption.

Are we producing enough things for all the people in the whole world? We'd say yes.

Are all the people in the whole world getting these things? We'd say no.

Are all the things produced fully utilised? No, a lot are being wasted, thrown away daily.

Do we still need to consume more and produce more? Likely not. For a healthier society, we need a better way of redistributing these products & services. While in some nations, a lot of food is wasted, there are other nations with not enough food to go around with.

Why food and other necessities do not go to these people? Well, in the Current System, they are commodities to be exploited for production, hence they don't deserve high pay and hence they can't afford to buy food and hence food do not get distributed to these places. Wonderful system we have, right? (Sarcasm intended)

How is AVOFT system relevant here? In AVOFT system, we no longer have the burden to feed giant corporations that are increasingly lowering the ethical boundaries in order to profit more. In AVOFT system, no money is involved, everyone deserves food, resources, services and so on. In AVOFT system, people can work into fields they are truly passionate about, contributing in various ways they truly believe in and hence more productive. In AVOFT system, no people is exploited. The full concept and implementation of AVOFT system still require a lot of scrutinising and research. As more information and concepts become available, we will post them up.

Let us take a look at the last part of the video, saying that there are many points of intervention & that the people can take back the government of the country.

We do agree that there are many points of intervention but as long as we are running in the Current System model, none of these interventions will be effective. The corporations, the politicians & the corrupted people will still keep abusing the loopholes and the system to earn "their share of the profit". The interventions will only work on the individual symptoms but the root problems will remain strong.

In the Current System, every man is for himself. Everyone has to look after their own interests. This is how people started throwing morality and ethics away. They have  to "survive". By eliminating this idea of every man for himself using the AVOFT system, we can open up to a new world of sharing and abundance.

It will take time for us to eliminate the poison injected by the giant corporations, called consumerism, but it can be done.

Last but not least. The point on idealistic. Indeed it is worth considering, is AVOFT system idealistic? Or is the hope of going on indefinitely the way we are now idealistic?

That is all for now... more soon.