While more people will be familiar with me as a poet covering a wide range of themes including support for the concept of One World for all, I do also write articles on topics that have long concerned me - the environment, climate change, poverty, an end to all wars and tackling the root causes of poverty around the world.
This article was recently penned and it was posted first on another site where it was previewed by a limited number of people before I made any attempt to give it a wider audience. Having gained approval from the invited readers, I am bringing it here and other sites too.
The world is in significant danger for a whole bunch of reasons and that's not really news, but it is often ignored in our day to day lives because we are pressured in so many ways by work, travel, family and other factors that rob us of time to sit down and think thing through thoroughly.
What is also true is that when we do stop and think, perhaps because we are forced to take time out when illness, unemployment, etc, intervene into our regular regime, we can take stock and decide some things matter more to us than we had been allowing ourselves to perceive.
Personally I have had a fairly hectic life, running businesses, taking over the role of full time parent when my wife became seriously ill, and well, just dealing with everything life demands of us.
Eventually health issues forced me to take time out and I have been happily adjusting to changes for a few years now. Actually that's great, because with less expected of me now, my kids have become self sufficient and I have the time to reflect upon many of the issues I first started taking seriously way back in the 60's and 70's.
Not that I have ignored everything in the intervening years - as a couple we delayed having our own family for 15 years, so we got involved in a bunch of positive activities - support for overseas kids, environmental issue through the Woodland trust, RSPCA, RSPB, etc, etc.
But now freed from family and business pressures, I have spent many hours every day on a much wider range of activities via the Red Cross, Oxfam and other charities & taking part in many campaigns associated with the welfare and protection of whaling, dolphins, etc.
Now some people may have read this far and started to think, hey this guy is blowing his own trumpet - well if they do, they are entitled to their opinions, and I can't say I would be overly concerned. Why - well if people like to judge us on slender knowledge, their first impressions will be tripping them up all too often, with the result they suffer rather tun cause us any pain...
Reality is that I am merely listing a few of the additional items I have time for since I stopped working 12/14 hours a day, and I hope to encourage others to take note of the fact that after we stop 'earning an income' we are just as likely to be busier than before as bored from doing too little.
Actually I begrudge sleep and other distractions as I have way too many interests to ever devote sufficient time to and who knows when the long sleep will come to end all activity? So for years now I have blogged on various sites, I've shared several hundred of my poems across a raft of poetry forums, and rediscovered my interests in photo editing, graphics, etc.
One of my favourite sites for the last 6+ years has been FanBox - I joined when the blog system was primitive by comparison to what they have now, but it sufficed for poems and short articles and I found new friends and fans there and realised I was getting more feedback and comments than on other sites. The whole ethos of the site was conspicuously different from other places, with many members openly expressing their concerns for world issues we should be finding time to focus on and as I dug deeper into the background of the site and the people behind it I found the details quite refreshing - no big shareholders, just a tight knit group of founders who still give freely of their personal time to support local charities in a truly hands on fashion, as well as providing financial support to them as well.
And do you know what, they went further and committed to providing financier support to many more charities members want to assist. So for years now members have chosen which causes get to share the 1% of the site revenues that are dedicated to good cause.
With some 55 themed blogs there now ranging from graphics to poetry to my ScamBuster blog, the place has become the one site I will be found on every day - and I'm happy to say that the cash outs I have had from the site for the content I provide have enabled me to contribute more funds to the charities that are close to my heart - and some to my kids too, they may be adults now, but once a parent, always a parent. :)
For those that are not as familiar with the site as long time members like myself, perhaps you should know just how different it is from the norm today. It has actually evolved into a member run site, with more volunteers from within taking on the roles of teachers, coaches and representatives from many countries who participate in the decision making processes, with our elected President at the helm. Yes, an actual democratically run site - not many others like that!
It is far more than just a blogging site now, with it's own market place for members to offer their services and products in, and many more earning opportunities for all, some as simple as sharing photos & videos,
With a whole range of member created communities within the site, there are probably more hours of entertainment and learning on the site than you can imagine and the common goal of all is to build the community that bridges across all those usual barriers of national boundaries, etc.
It's been a closed site for some time now, as the FanBox found it necessary to prevent multiple registrations by less desirable elements - so it is invite only now, requiring an existing member to earn the right to share limited numbers of activation codes with people they trust.
That has helped enormously to keep the FanBox community and it's shared funds safe - every member can earn there if they wish to, and the comprehensive learning centre is backed up by trained volunteers who give their time as success coaches to ensue anyone can kern how to use the facilities effectively. That earning potential also required the continual evolution of enhanced security measures to thwart the hackers and other pests such as money launderers from attempting to misuse the facilities.
Today there are more possibilities than ever for the genuine members to earn and to show their support for causes they are passionate about -some have created communities dedicated to their chosen charities to rally further support, others share their knowledge of hobbies, crafts and more, and fans of particular artists, etc, are also busy providing additional facilities.
Back when I joined FanBox I would not have guessed the developments it has accomplished now - I doubt if I would have believed it possible back then, given the modest resources the founders had available - yet despite big investment offers, they have always refused to allow themselves the option to make themselves wealthy. Why? Simply because that would have undermined their declared intentions of providing a better way to use the power of the world wide web - giving power and resources to as many people as possible and literally changing lives for the better for members that have proved themselves ready to take a bold new direction for their future.
People wanting to learn more only need to visit the sign in page to view countless testimonials from members and then make their own minds up as to the merits of seeking an invite from a friend. I won't offer to provide activation codes to people I don't know well myself as that would obviously undermine the purpose of the system - and I get more than enough requests already. But sincere people with similar views to existing members will more than likely know someone they can ask for an invite and will be able to count upon those friends for guidance on the basics too - how to use the learning centre and how to choose a success coach with their language skills too.
The future of the world is not yet cast in stone, but with many positive initiatives from specific pressure groups and the efforts of sites such as FanBox to help develop more targeted support for the needy and for animal welfare, etc, we are reasonably sure to find the web is the future source of people power to swing the trends away from commercial greed that has caused so much damage and inflicted misery on untold millions.
In ten years time we could be celebrating the awakening of mankind to the values that can sustain both our descendants and all that they will depend on, without sacrificing more forests, animal species and environment essentials merely to meet the short term goals of commerce and politicians...
©Rhumour
April 12th 2014
