Peak Oil -- And What Do We Do Now?

Problem: Neuza Nascimento era solicitada permanentemente pelo seu filho de dez anos para freqüentar os bailes da comunidade, ele insistia muito e Neuza um dia cedeu e acompanhou seu filho até o baile. Chegando lá ela pode perceber que aquele ambiente era muito inadequado para um menino. Ela começou a pensar sobre a questão, e ficou muito triste em imaginar que a única opção de Lazer para os jovens, na comunidade, fosse os bailes funk. Então ela...

Action: O projeto Um Olhar Sobre Outras Coisas realiza atividades locais e externas a comunidade.   Atividade local:   A coordenadora do projeto visita a casa das famílias da comunidade e convida as crianças para participarem de uma reunião, que é realizado em um espaço cedido pelo Conselho de Moradores, neste convite as crianças e os pais são informados que durante o encontro serão realizadas atividades lúdico-pedagógicas.   A reunião começa com a apresentação de cada um dizendo o seu nome e a sua i...

Problem: Neuza Nascimento was constantly asked by her 10 yr old son to attend the "funk" dances in the community. He insisted so regularly that one day she acquiesced and joined him at the dance. Upon arrival, she realized immediately that such an atmosphere was unsuitable for a young boy. She began to contemplate the issue, and was disheartened that the only leisure activity for the community´s youths was to go to the funk parties.   Neuza then came up with an idea to change that reality.   Her firs...

Action: The project “A Look Into Other Things” carries out activities both within and beyond the local community.   Local Activity: The project coordinator visits the homes of community families and invites the children to participate in a get-together. In this invitation, both parents and children are informed about educational activities that will take place at the reunion. The reunions take place in an area donated by the Residents´ Tribunal.   The reunion begins with everyone saying their name an...

Problem: Government is the organizing instrument of society and to make sure that it is acting in the best interests of its citizens, it is managed and controlled by representatives of the citizens who are directly accountable for their performance to the citizens: Representative Government.How to create and structure such a representative government hasn't totally eluded people to date but it could do with some improving.Many of the existing structures carry burdens of historical trappings, most ofte...

Action: Small groups in every constituency, in every nation, must organize now around a standard, new, simple platform and present themselves for election on that platform at every opportunity.The consistent platform will enable and speed the education of the citizenry of all nations, regions and communities. Those who do not wish to stand for office can be powerful in demanding that anyone they vote for adopt the Standards of LIFE as part of their own agenda and commit to promoting them in any way t...

Problem: This solution tackles the question of legal juristiction in a multi-layered, community based social structure. How can you establish human rights on a global level while allowing individual communities to determine their own laws for food standards or noise levels?

Action: Within the structure of multi-layer democracy (http://www.standardsoflife.com/representation) there needs to be a way of handling the differences between different consitituencies within a layer and between layers. Variable Law is a legal construct that is best included in a constitution (http://www.standardsoflife.com/constitutional+Template) and provides ...

Problem: The process by which elections are conducted is an area in which we can learn a lot from how our fledgling democracies have evolved over recent centuries. It is in the election and campaigning process that we can see the most egregious flaws emerge to pollute the ideals of representative democracy.

Action: Between 30 days before the election date and the day of the election, all voters cast a vote that allows them to specify 1st and 2nd choices from the available candidates for a seat in the assembly. Candidates with sufficient 1st choice votes to qualify (by passing the quota defined as the half the total votes divided by the number of seats available; e.g. for a body with 7 representatives, at least 7% of the total votes) are duly elected, in order of the number of 1st choice votes received.T...