The Common Good

Beyond the Green Economy, a guide to a Happier, Healthier and more Sustainable Life

2014-02-04T18:17:00.000+01:00

The Blue Economy concept was brought into life by Gunter Pauli with the book The Blue Economy 10 years - 100 innovations - 100 million jobs. He wrote it after 16 years of experiences and more than 50 successful initiatives and projects all over the world as founder and director of Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives.

The Blue Economy principles permit to respond to the basic needs of all with what we have. It stands for a different way of designing business by using the resources available in cascading systems, where the waste of one product becomes the input to create a new cash flow. It aims at creating jobs, building up social capital and rising income while saving the environment. An international community of companies, innovators and scientists support the concept, providing open source access to develop, implement and share prosperous business models which targets to improve natural ecosystems and quality of life.

These are the 21 principles that define it :

1. Solutions are first and foremost based on physics. Deciding factors are Pressure and Temperature as found on site.

2. Substitute something with Nothing – question any resource regarding its necessity for production.

3. Natural systems cascade nutrients, matter and energy – waste does not exist. Any by-product is the source for a new product.

4. Nature evolved from few species to a rich biodiversity. Wealth means diversity. Industrial standardization is the contrary.

5. Nature provides room for entrepreneurs who do more with less. Nature is contrary to monopolization.

6. Gravity is main source of energy, solar energy is the second renewable fuel.

7. Water is the primary solvent (no complex, chemical, toxic catalysts).

8. In nature the constant is change. Innovations take place in every moment.

9. Nature only works with what is locally available. Sustainable business evolves with respect not only for local resources, but also for culture and tradition.

10. Nature responds to basic needs and then evolves from sufficiency to abundance. The present economic model relies on scarcity as a basis for production and consumption.

11. Natural systems are non-linear.

12. In Nature everything is biodegradable – it is just a matter of time.

13. In natural systems everything is connected and evolving towards symbiosis.

14. In Nature water, air, and soil are the commons, free and abundant.

15. In Nature one process generates multiple benefits.

16. Natural systems share risks. Any risk is a motivator for innovations.

17. Nature is efficient. So sustainable business maximizes use of available material and energy, which reduces the unit price for the consumer.

18. Nature searches for the optimum for all involucrated elements.

19. In Nature negatives are converted into positives. Problems are opportunities.

20. Nature searches for economies of scope. One natural innovation carries various benefits for all.

21. Respond to basic needs with what you have, introducing innovations inspired by nature, generating multiple benefits, including jobs and social capital, offering more with less

The Red Letters : The Greatest Words Ever Spoken

2013-12-15T23:44:00.001+01:00

“ This cup is the new testament in my blood, which I shed for you. ”

Luke 22:20

This is the verse that inspired Louis Klopsch, then editor of The Christian Herald to edit a New Testament with the words spoken by Jesus printed in red ink. When he asked his mentor Rev. Talmage he told him "It could do no harm and it most certainly could do much good"

What importance do Christians give today to the greatest words ever spoken, the words of Jesus? Is it at least proportionate to their frequency in God's Word? Let's start by crunching some numbers to get an idea of it. The number of words in the New Testament is around 180,000 of which barely over 20% are words of Christ. Considering verses, the New Testament has 7,959, of which but 1,599 or exactly 20% are sayings of Christ.

These relatively few sayings of Jesus have not a place apart, but run in an uneven distribution through the four Gospels (a few in other Books); and in each of the four Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, John—the "sayings" are unevenly distributed through the narrative, as follow :

Often a "saying" recorded by Matthew, is paraphrased, or even duplicated, by one or more of the other three biographers. Accordingly, only the devoted reader of the New Testament, the habitual reader, has become familiar with Christ's sayings to the point where he can comprehend them as one message, one gospel proclaiming the Saviour's great objective.

In order to provide better understanding of God's Big Picture revealed through His Son's Words, I have decided to use design to reveal an accurate picture of what His words say throughout His Message. This is the beautiful and inspiring result :

The Love Revolutionary

2010-11-06T08:05:00.000+01:00

This inspiring picture of Jesus reminds me of Che Guevara, our pop culture icon of the revolutionary, but what many ignore is that this man besides being an adventurous rebel and extremist thinker was over all a guerrillero who murderered hundreds of people and setup concentrations camps in Cuba.
All the conflicts, violence and crimes associated to revolution may make us hesitate to call Jesus a revolutionary, but what is a revolution after all?

Revolution: "constituting or bringing about a major or fundamental change."

Jesus wasn't just a good man or an enlightened prophet, he brought a major change in His time by contesting the established order, social rules and proclaimed a redistribution of wealth. Yet he achieved this without a single drop of blood besides His and trough a message of universal love that stands until today. That sounds like a different kind of revolution.

"Someone once said that 'a rebel attempts to change the past; a revolutionary attempts to change the future.' Jesus Christ brought drastic change to the world. Change to humanity's view of God. Change to God's view of humankind. Change to men's view of women. Our Lord came to bring radical change to the old order of things, replacing it with a new order."

Franck Viola

So yes, Jesus was a true revolutionary, a love revolutionary! And He sent His disciples to the end of the earth to proclaim the good news of His Kingdom, a message of salvacion and of everlasting love for all. These disciples were, in their turn, revolutionaries wherever they went and we are their heirs in our own cities and countries.

May we be known like Paul and Silas as "these men who turned the world upside down" (Acts 17:16)

The Dangerous, Romantic, Poets of Love

2010-10-30T12:29:00.000+02:00

‎"We are the dangerous, romantic, poets of love. Dangerous because we question a world order that causes people to live in slavery. Romantic because we are called the greatest love story ever. Poets because we are His workmanship, His poema. ...We are living poems and should tell our story with beauty."

Gordon Pennington

This quote is simply beautiful, I couldn't explain things better in my poor words so I chose to simply illustrate it with these verses and pictures

Revolution

"Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

Mark 10:21

Romance

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

John 3:16

Poetry

"Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous--how well I know it."

Psalm 139:14

All You Need Is Love

2010-10-27T09:55:00.000+02:00

"This song was first performed by The Beatles on Our World, the first live global television link. The Beatles were asked to come up with a song containing a simple message to be understood by all nationalities."

The title of this song resumes well what the world needs most today : Love!
Not just a word or whatever it may refer to in the english langage but supernatural, divine love that can change people's lives and that was so great that God gave his only son so that all that believe in him may be saved! I can't imagine even deserving such a love and when I look at myself I realise I really don't deserve it.
That happened because as John 14:26 puts it, I am saved by the grace of Christ through His faith so from now on I do my best to live under grace and by faith with the help of the Holy Spirit sent by God in the name of Jesus.