Just a thought.

The 48-year-old kneels in front of the desert cave he calls home, sips cedar tea from a chipped mug and explains, again, why he has intentionally lived the last nine years without using money.

It’s instinctual to live without money; it’s the way we were born, he says. It’s political. The addiction to money fuels corruption, he says, and he refuses to support a corrupt system. There’s also a spiritual basis for his life, a philosophical framework.

“The understanding that, really, we all possess nothing is the cornerstone of all spiritual endeavors and religions,” he says.

And there are health reasons. Suelo, who was born with the last name Shellabarger, is unfettered with worries about a mortgage or bills or income. Tanned with a mop of gray locks framing his Buddy Holly glasses, he is a picture of contentment, his lithe frame stretched in the fall sun amid prickly pear cactus and red rock.

“I think taking things as they come naturally is the key to good health,” he says.

A decade ago, Suelo was dizzy with depression. His University of Colorado degree in anthropology wasn’t fulfilling. He had just returned from two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ecuador. He was disillusioned with his job working at homeless shelters and enclaves for battered women in Denver and Boulder.

Eventually, he concluded his growing despair was tied to fretting over his financial ability to maintain his stuff. Stuff, he realized, he didn’t need. So, he gave it all away.

“We use all our energy to maintain our possessions, and it becomes an ugly cycle,” he says.

He doesn’t barter or work for food or rent. Barter is another form of money, and Suelo doesn’t deal with any form of currency. Today, he embraces an ascetic life of “art and philosophizing.” He’s hardly the growling hermit, instead circling town on his trash-bin built bike, engaging a wide circle of pals.

“He is truly the happiest person I have ever met. He is so deeply peaceful, it’s contagious,” says Damian Nash, Suelo’s college roommate and a high school teacher in Moab. “He is living proof that money can’t buy happiness.”

Every summer, when the heat in Moab reaches unbearable — especially for a cave-dweller — Suelo hits the road, visiting friends and gatherings along the West Coast, where he is known only as “Suelo.”

“I have no idea what the future holds, and I don’t worry about it. But the longer I do this, it seems absurd to go back,” he says. “It would be like going back to slavery. There’s just too much of a price to pay.”

His cozy cave is an hour’s stroll from town. Maybe 15 feet by 5 feet, the one-man crevice is crammed with buckets holding a few days worth of rice and beans, books and cooking pots.

The hole in the wall is tidy, with his bedroll neatly folded into a nook. Cupped ridges on the wall hold knick-knacks. While the cave carries a strong smell of patchouli oil, Suelo doesn’t import any odiferous whiff of homelessness. He bathes daily in the stream below his cave. His clothes — which he found in the trash — are uncommonly formal for a man who camps year-round. Dress shoes and slacks, shirt buttoned to the top and a fresh wide-brimmed hat form a Suelo style that is more Bohemian chic than homeless bum.

Waste not, want not

Suelo lives an abundant albeit frugal life, thriving on the waste of a small town. Every week, he inspects Moab’s trash, finding more than he needs. Supermarket throwaways keep him well-fed. He eats healthily, often eschewing the abundant supply of day-old donuts or expired sweets. Although, he says, chocolate is “my gold.”

The wild onions, watercress, prickly pear fruit, service berries, globe mallow and pine nuts that grow near his home add fresh-grown flair to the trashbin-derived dishes he cooks over fire-branded coffee cans molded into stoves. He occasionally cooks roadkill gathered around Moab, but says he has never fallen ill from spoiled food.

The piles of trash behind Moab’s half-dozen self-storage facilities provide a steady supply of clothes, tools, bedding and utensils.

“People don’t realize how much perfectly good stuff is thrown away with just a blemish,” he says. “Even after all these years, I’m still asking myself, ‘Why would anyone throw this out?’”

‘A parasite of sorts`

He used to bristle when he heard people call him a mooch, a leech or sponge off society. The occasional “get-a-job” comments from friends, family and readers of his blog (which he writes from computers in public libraries) don’t bother him much anymore. He says he has stopped worrying about what people think about him.

Filmmaker Gordon Stevenson a few years ago made a short documentary about Suelo called “Moneyless in Moab.” Response to the film was largely positive but varied. A few thought he was insane. Others saw a conflict in Suelo’s rejection of money but dependence on a society anchored in commerce.

“His lifestyle does depend on a group of people using money, and some people saw this as a contradiction, but Daniel comes out pretty clearly that he is a parasite of sorts,” Stevenson says. “Some people were angered by the idea that using money leaves you tainted or immoral. But I don’t think Daniel thinks like that. You might think he is, but he’s not judgmental.”

Nash hears often from people who harbor hostility toward his friend.

“I think he makes people angry because they have this belief that if only they had a little more money, they’d be happy,” Nash says. “His lifestyle is a challenge to their Holy Grail, the American consumer capitalist dream.”

There is one thing that makes Suelo seethe: store owners or police who tell him he can’t search a bin of garbage “for his own safety.” He’s had plenty of run-ins with both, but not as much in Moab, where he is well-known.

“They seem so mad about it. If they want to be livid about something, how about how much food we throw away,” he says. “I know that there is enough food to feed a village in one Dumpster behind Wal-Mart or Sam’s. All I’m taking is a few crumbs falling from this opulent table.”

Suelo often bows to the generosity of others, while never asking for help. Self-sufficiency isn’t a goal in his moneyless life, he says. So, he will sometimes house-sit, but it makes him antsy and he pines for his cave. If someone presses him to take something, he doesn’t argue. He recently began taking yoga classes offered by a friend. If they insist on giving him money, he gives it away immediately.

“We are all completely dependent on everyone else. The point is to live freely, in the present, freely giving and freely taking, which is the way of nature,” he says. “The idea is to give up control of credit and debt, and just trust the cycle of nature.”

Suelo’s friend Ray Pride nearly a decade ago took Suelo up to Alaska for two months of salmon fishing on his boat. After filling the holding tanks with thousands of pounds of bright red sockeye salmon, Pride tried to slip some cash into Suelo’s stuff. Suelo was planning to camp and hitchhike around Alaska for a couple months before hitchhiking back to Moab. Pride was sure he could use the money.

“He found it and left it on the boat,” says Pride, who lives in Moab. “So, I gave him $200 when I left at the airport.”

Suelo gave it away right there in the airport, and the next day, he says, “I found a backpack.” He toured Alaska for two months, penniless, living off the land. He ate mussels, kelp and seaweed while along the coast; mushrooms, berries and fish when he hiked inland. That was the trip that began his purely moneyless journey.

Suelo grew up in an evangelical Christian home and is well-versed in biblical teaching. He also quotes from the Koran, the Torah, the Book of Mormon and an array of Hindu teachers. While hiking in Alaska, he mulled his spirit’s direction and felt a sort of hypocrite.

“Seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you,” Suelo says, citing a passage from the book of Matthew. “Did I really believe that? The only way to know is to try it. I want to be able to talk from my heart and live it, too.”
]]> http://momentofthought.wordpress.com/2009/11/22/living-without-money/feed/ 0 momentofthought http://momentofthought.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/just-a-thought/ http://momentofthought.wordpress.com/2009/11/16/just-a-thought/#comments Mon, 16 Nov 2009 22:26:11 +0000 momentofthought http://momentofthought.wordpress.com/?p=47 ]]> Are the forces of evil stronger than the forces of peace?

Out of this country comes a friend of mine.  We’ll call him “Stan.”  Stan now lives here in the U.S. but still holds onto his Canadian residency as well. 

Months ago Stan took a serious fall and shattered a bone in his lower leg while trying to cross a stream.  Uninsured here in the states, Stan headed to Canada a painful day later to see a doctor.  Screws were eventually inserted into the leg.  Over the course of the last few months, Stan has made two trips north and spent three nights in the hospital on both occasions.

The surgery, medicine and the overnight stays should make for one hell of bill, right?  Only here in the non universal health care United States would a bill like this be high.   Not in Canada.  A bill quoted by a doctor friend of Stan said that here in the U.S., a bill like his would exceed $60,000.  $4,000 to $5,000 in medicine alone.  What did Stan pay?  Because of his Canadian health care coverage, Stan was charged $5,100.    To top it off, the hospital apologized for such a “high” bill!

Now that’s health care!

I’m not saying it’s perfect, but our country sure could do something like this right?

God provides people the chance to accept death.  When the believer dies, they know they will go sit side by side with Him/Her/It  in the Kingdom of Heaven.  It is one reason people developed the idea of God.  In my opinion, it is one benefit in believing.  But what about those of us who may not believe in God? 

Maybe if I truly believed, I wouldn’t lie awake at night thinking when I die, that’s it.  Game over.  My heart wouldn’t pound, my head wouldn’t shake and I wouldn’t have to force another thought into my head just to escape the thought of death.  If I believed, I wouldn’t fear death.

Hillary Clinton: “Backsliding by any party will be met by credible pressure”

US President Barack Obama has offered “incentives” to Sudan, if it acts to improve the situation in Darfur.

However, as he unveiled a new policy on Khartoum, Mr Obama threatened “increased pressure” if Sudan failed to make progress towards achieving peace.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US was still focused on addressing the effects of “genocide” in Darfur – a term Sudan said was “unfortunate”.

The UN estimates that 300,000 people have died in Darfur since 2003.

In a statement, Mr Obama said: “If the government of Sudan acts to improve the situation on the ground and to advance peace, there will be incentives.

“If it does not, there will be increased pressures imposed by the United States and the international community.”

He said the world must act “with a sense of urgency and purpose” on Sudan.

“First, we must seek a definitive end to conflict, gross human rights abuses and genocide in Darfur. Second, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the North and South in Sudan must be implemented to create the possibility of long-term peace”.

In his statement, Mr Obama said he would renew tough measures against Khartoum later this week.

Language ‘unfortunate’

The US has stressed the new approach does not mean it will deal directly with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, says the BBC’s Kim Ghattas in Washington.

 

ANALYSIS James Copnall, BBC News, Khartoum There had been a fierce debate in the US on how to deal with Sudan – President Bashir and his party are regarded by many with real distaste. The new policy seems to have softened previously hard edges – but not so much as to completely infuriate the anti-Khartoum lobby in America. The word “genocide” is intensely annoying to Mr Bashir’s camp, it seems sanctions are to be renewed, and the warnings about “credible, meaningful disincentives” if progress is not made will not please, either. But the offer of “incentives” and engagement would not have been made by an American administration a few years ago.

Mr Bashir is wanted on an international arrest warrant for crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Mrs Clinton said the US remained intent on “reversing the dire human consequences of genocide” in the Darfur region by addressing problems in refugee camps and protecting civilians from attack.

She said Washington’s engagement with Sudan would hinge on the provision of a safe haven for refugees.

“We are looking to achieve results through broad engagement and frank dialogue,” she said.

Sudan has said the new US strategy is an improvement on the previous US stance.

“Compared to previous policies there are positive points, we don’t see the extreme ideas and suggestions which we used to see in the past,” said senior presidential adviser Ghazi Salaheddin

“I will say it is a strategy of engagement, not a strategy of isolation.”

But he said the use of the word “genocide” to describe the situation in the Darfur region was “unfortunate” and “does not reflect the realities in Darfur”.

The Obama administration will no doubt face criticism from human rights group, who oppose engagement with Sudan because of the indictment against Mr Bashir, says our correspondent.

It also remains unclear what incentives the US is offering and what the consequences will be for Sudan if the situation does not improve, she adds.

The Darfur conflict began in 2003 when rebel groups attacked government targets, accusing Khartoum of oppressing black Africans in favour of Arabs.

Pro-government militiamen hit back with brutal force, which the US and some rights groups have labelled genocide.

Khartoum denies supporting the militias, but the international court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant earlier this year for Mr Bashir, accusing him of war crimes.

From BBC News, October, 19, 2009

Would the world fall into a complete state of anarchy?  Would people just give up because there would be nothing to live for?  Would we begin to advance as a society in such things as stem cell research because a stigma of “playing God” would cease to exist?  How many wars would break out in defense of God?  Could people live with the fact that when they die there is nothing? 

Just a moment of thought I wanted to throw out to whoever reads this.  I’d love to see some feedback.

Fiser’s mother wants him to return to school some day

To see children’s silhouettes at sunrise, bent as they chop canes with machetes, is to see the scale of poverty in Bolivia, where often every member of the family, no matter how young, has to work.

Fiser, 10, is one of Bolivia’s many child labourers.

“I am not going to school any more. I left it this year when I started working here,” he tells me.

His hands are covered in blisters and dark with a sticky dust after hours harvesting sugar cane.

Child labour is illegal in Bolivia, but it is estimated that almost a third of the country’s children and adolescents (320,000) work in extreme conditions; in the mines, Brazil nut plantations and the sugar cane fields.

Boys like Fiser earn less than $5 a day during the six months or so that they work harvesting sugar cane, often from sunrise to sunset.

Such work is considered one of the worst forms of child labour by international bodies such as the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the UN children’s agency, Unicef.

Ciro, 13, is typical. “I’d like to study or maybe work in something better, something lighter. But I work most of all for my family, my family is really poor so they have nothing and I need to help my six little brothers,” he says.

“I wake up at four in the morning and come out to work until six in the afternoon, sometimes until eleven at night. The work is really, really hard.”

Temporary migrants

Until recently, many farmers were moving away from sugar cane because they could get better, government-guaranteed prices for other crops, such as soya, rice and the local crop, coca – the raw material for cocaine.

The work is hard, very hard… I don’t want to do this any more, but I have no choice Luis, 13

But now, the price of raw sugar is hitting highs not seen for nearly three decades and farmers are switching back to sugar cane. Whole families are moving across Bolivia to work in the fields.

Sugar cane has a particular economic advantage: the harvest provides an income for a relatively extended period – roughly between April and November.

It is a way of making a living in Bermejo, a poverty-stricken area of south-eastern Bolivia on the border with Argentina.

Most of the heavy harvesting work is still done manually. Children aged between seven and 17 set crops alight to remove all unwanted foliage and then chop down the canes. Later, the top is cut off and the rest of the cane is stacked and loaded for transportation.

Luis, 13, started working three years ago.

“The work is hard, very hard, exhausting,” he says. “The canes are heavy, cutting, chopping all day, last year I had a terrible back pain from work. I don’t want to do this any more, but I have no choice.”

High prices mean sugar is once again a sought after commodity

About 60% of the sugar cane harvesters are temporary migrants from Bolivia’s poorest areas. They live in shacks that are little more than mud huts, or under blue tarpaulins on the edge of the sugar cane plantations.

There is no hygiene; no privacy. As the local saying goes, they have “sweet canes but bitter lives”.

“It is not a secret that children of all ages work in different conditions, in different sectors in this country,” says Unicef’s Bolivia representative Gordon Jonathan Lewis.

“As long as poverty exists, and the magnitude and the prevalence you have in a country like Bolivia, you will always have the need for children to contribute to households and local economies.”

But in the sugar cane harvest, the exploitation of child workers can be extreme, Mr Lewis adds.

This view is echoed by Anastasio Rueda, a sugar cane trade union leader in Bermejo.

“Sometimes the boss takes advantage of them because they are young, and treats them badly. There are accidents. And of course there are children who do not want to come to work because the job is harsh, but some parents force them to,” he says.

Forceful approach

Now, nearly 20 years after the Convention of the Rights of the Child was agreed, Unicef is trying a range of ways to tackle child labour.

One is a “Child Labour Free” stamp for certain Bolivian products, like sugar. Together with Unicef, Bolivia’s government has drawn up a plan to reduce child labour by 2015.

Angelica does not want her son to have her “rotten” life

“The plans exists, the public policies are in place, the legal framework is there but right now we really do need a much more forceful approach,” Mr Lewis says.

Some parents would prefer their children to be at school rather than in the fields. Unfortunately, money compels them to take their children into the fields with them.

That is the case for Fiser’s mother, Angelica, who is working alongside him.

“He helps me a lot. He used to be at school but I need him to come to work with me, at least this year, then he can go back to school. Now we need the money so his little brothers can eat and go to school.”

Angelica knows about the harsh reality of child labour herself as she has been toiling in the cane fields for a pittance since she was 10. She is now 44.

“Now he got used to work and he doesn’t want to go back to school because he earns some petty cash and knows I need help,” she says.

“But I tell him, even if it is a huge effort, he has to study so he doesn’t end up like me, old and working in the sugar cane harvest. The children should have that opportunity. We are rotten already.”
]]> http://momentofthought.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/child-labor/feed/ 0 momentofthought Fiser Sugar cane field Angelica http://momentofthought.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/darfur-report/ http://momentofthought.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/darfur-report/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 03:24:35 +0000 momentofthought http://momentofthought.wordpress.com/?p=26 Continue reading →]]>

The UN says more than two million Darfuris have fled their homes over the last six years

An African Union panel has handed over a report aimed at finding a peaceful solution to the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region.

Former South African President Thabo Mbeki led the inquiry and delivered his findings to the AU in Ethiopia.

The bloc set up a commission after a global arrest warrant was issued for Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, accusing him of war crimes in Darfur.

The UN says fighting in the region since 2003 has led to 300,000 deaths.

DARFUR CONFLICT 300,000 died 2.7 million homeless Black African rebels say they face discrimination Government denies mobilising Arab militias Dancing Bashir scoffs at warrant In pictures: Sudan defiant Q&A: Sudan’s Darfur conflict

Sudanese officials say about 10,000 people died.

The BBC’s Uduak Amimo, in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa where the AU’s headquarters are based, says Mr Mbeki’s remit of balancing the need for justice, peace and reconciliation in Darfur was a daunting one.

Mr Mbeki said he would not make the document public.

But analysts say it is likely to recommend a local tribunal – backed by the AU, Sudan and possibly the Arab League – to deal with the abuses committed in Darfur.

Critics say the AU is using the commission only to find a way of avoiding the International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant for Mr Bashir’s arrest – claims Mr Mbeki strongly denied.

The AU has already refused to honour the warrant and Mr Bashir has rejected the charges against him, accusing the ICC of colonialism.

Our reporter says analysts will be watching keenly to see whether the AU will accept and implement the recommendations of the commission it set up.

It comes after the UN’s outgoing commander in Darfur said in August that the region was no longer in a state of war, but rather faced low-level conflict and criminality.

ICC charges

Analysts have pointed out that fighting in southern Sudan has claimed more lives this year than violence in Darfur.

The US had wanted Omar al-Bashir charged with genocide

The conflict in Darfur flared in 2003 when black African rebel groups took up arms against the government in Khartoum, complaining of discrimination and neglect.

Pro-government Arab militias then started a campaign of violence, targeting the black African population.

The UN says this led to some 300,000 deaths and forced more than two million people from their homes.

The US said it amounted to a genocide, but the ICC rejected a request to charge Mr Bashir with genocide.

The Sudanese government has always denied charges that it helped organise the militia attacks.

Mr Bashir has been charged by the ICC with two counts of war crimes – intentionally directing attacks against civilians and pillaging.

He is also accused of five crimes against humanity – murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape.

Story by BBC NEWS
]]> http://momentofthought.wordpress.com/2009/10/13/darfur-report/feed/ 0 momentofthought Darfuri refugees, file image Map Sudan President Omar al-Bashir http://momentofthought.wordpress.com/2009/09/20/representation-of-the-people/ http://momentofthought.wordpress.com/2009/09/20/representation-of-the-people/#comments Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:18:50 +0000 momentofthought http://momentofthought.wordpress.com/?p=22 Continue reading →]]> “Representation was meant to be a mere substitution for political action through the people themselves, and the representatives they elected were supposed to act according to instructions received from their electors and not to transact business in accordance with their own opinions.”  – Hannah Arendt, “On Revolution”

“If once our people become inattentive to the public affairs , you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves.”  -Thomas Jefferson