Sangita and the Elephant

Hi Everyone,

Our wonderful Conversation Leader, Sangita Iyer of Cohort W2 recently published this piece on Rescuing an Elephant in the Wilds of India in the Huffington Post.

This is a really entertaining and account of being witness to a tremendous act of inter-species caring.  As someone with a life-long deep connection to elephants, I thank you for sharing this article, Sangita!

What an adventure!

Israel Replacing GDP with New Indicators of Economic Health

Hi Everyone,

According to this article passed on by Molly Freeman, the Israeli government has committed to 

formulating "a new series of indicators to gauge the quality of life in Israel and the country’s economic situation, instead of relying solely on gross domestic product ‏(GDP‏) figures."

Huzzah! 

(You'll see that you need to register for the site to see the full text of the article - but here are some excerpts for you...)

"...Among the things to be measured are civil and government involvement, employment and the balance between work and leisure, infrastructure and housing, education, personal security, health, personal and societal welfare, and the environmental situation."

“One of the fundamental problems in using GDP as the basis for measuring human progress is the fact that it includes many factors that have a negative influence on society and the environment,” the report stated. “For example, investment in prisons, policing and security, or investment in industrial production that pollutes, contribute to the growth in GDP. There is also importance to measuring investments whose goals are to advance and preserve the quality of life and in measuring activities to strengthen social cohesion,” the report added.  GDP also does not relate to questions of the distribution of wealth and income between individuals, and does not include many activities of households and their contribution to general welfare, said the report.

And, the article goes on:  "Israel is following many other countries who are members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, who, in recent years, have adopted a list of measures that complement GDP.  Israel is already involved in the process of adopting new social indexes, as it was the country chosen by the OECD to undertake pioneering research into evaluating the quality of life, based on 11 different indexes determined by the OECD."

Thanks for sharing this amazing news!  We'll have to take a closer look at how many of the indexes are measuring the work of care in households and communities.

Finland's Secrets to Success (Again)

Thanks to Kim Otis, CEC Director, for sharing this really nice in-depth look at the Finnish model of a caring eocnomy from The Atlantic magazine:

The Secret to Finland's Success With Schools, Moms, Kids—and Everything

In addition to describing the huge benefits of the Finnish system for human well-being...which never fails to make me want to pack my bags... this article also takes a good critical look at the differences between the Finnish and American contexts - and offers an assessment of how we might still borrow from the Finns despite the huge structural and cultural differences between our countries.

And, here's an interesting graph from the article, showing the international differences in taxes as a share of GDP:

And, while we're on the subject - here's one more Finland article, by a Finnish Mom - which ends with this powerful line:

"It’s not always a question of resources, but how a country chooses to use them." 

Amazing how it always comes back to values and choices, doesn't it?

- Sara

Caring Activism: Change Strategies that Model Culture Shift

Hi Conversation Leaders!

Thanks to Maura Conlon-McIvor, CELP alum and now CELP faculty who couldn't help noticing that the title of this article in YES! Magazine sounded oddly familiar.

A Caring Economy Requires Building Bridges—Not Burning Them

The article is a lovely profile of the social activism strategies being employed by Ai-jen Poo, the founder and director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, a membership organization of housekeepers, nannies, and home health assistants, most of whom are undocumented immigrant women.

I think many of you will be interested in this description of how tactics rooted in love, caring, and connection - rather than opposition - are the right and most effective strategies for creating change for a caring economy.

Thanks Maura!

Enjoy!