Do we pay with money or with our very Lives?

Facts of life – you need money to live. We need money to buy things, but is it actually money we        use   to pay for things or is there more to it?

Corruption: Sure we are pissed, But we Still allow it to happen

It happens everywhere and we all know it. But why is this still a thing? When you have large amounts of money and Power mixed with human nature what do we get? Corruption. It makes us angry seeing our taxes pocketed by politicians but what can we actually do to stop this?

http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=23748:corruption-puts-strain-on-south-africa-budget&catid=54:Governance&Itemid=118

http://ec.europa.eu/anti_fraud/index_en.htm

http://www.transparency.org.uk/corruption/statistics-and-quotes

What would you do with a Living Income?

We have such limitless potential. Unfortunately there are things that keep us from reaching  this potential and one of them is Money.

What would you be doing if life was not about survival?

Watch the Video Below:

Dat 313 - Is the 5000% Price hike of Life saving drug Justified?

No, it’s not. It’s almost as if we live in a world where corporate greed is more important than the lives of people. It’s almost as if we live in a world where companies don’t care about others…Oh wait.

Day 298 - What Does your Label Say about Humanities Future?

 

What is it that defines who we are?

Name?

Clothing?

Beliefs?

Country?

When you look at someone what label do you define them as? Do you judge someone based on how they look or your perception of them? Or do see another as who they truly are? We label and judge ourselves and others.

We have created categories within ourselves where we can place the various labels of others and ourselves. The truth is that we cannot know who a person is until you actually take the time to know them. A simple example would be stereotypes – Many people look at Muslims and label them terrorist. Look at foreigners and label them Immigrants in a hateful way. And the problems that grow from identifying people based on our own misconceptions are creating so much suffering.

We label ourselves as superior, as more than others. We see ourselves as more important than other people. We look at nature and see ourselves the dominant species that has right to do with it as we please. Simply look at what this identity is doing to the earth.

So what is the Solution? How can we identify ourselves as equals? What will it take for us to stop labeling each other and other beings? It’s in the realization that firstly our labeling is born from misconception – how we judge others is not real. The person standing next to you IS you, there is nothing that makes that other person more than you or less than you. There is nothing that makes you better than that person or more deserving than another. It is recognizing that every person in this world – we are all equal.

Within realizing this it becomes common sense to give to another what you would like to receive. If you were that person how would you liked to be treated? To be labeled? To be judged? No.

It’s time we stop identifying ourselves as living in separate realities and to realize that we are all on the same boat.

The Sims 4: Best way to make lots of money Fast

 

 

 

                                               Cow plant is fun - and dangerous...

One of the first things you will notice while playing  Sims 4  is that making money is more difficult than it was in the Sims 3. But I have found a method where my Sims don't have to work, don't have to paint, don't have to license songs or books . They both just live on interest earned.

Below I will show you how to make over 60 000 simoleons per week by doing nothing (no cheats).

Currently My Sims - the mother and father - are making over 70 000 a week. They do not have jobs - I quit them. This is done by taking advantage of the Fabulously Wealthy aspiration where your Sims gets money every week based on your household funds.

 

STEP 1 - Making a fortune with Gardening:

        Here is what a spliced Tomato and UFO plant looks like - the real money maker

 

Before you start selling your harvest make sure you select the Fabulously Wealthy Aspiration, because this will help you complete it.

The first thing we need to do is accumulate money - the more money you have the more you will make every week. The best and fastest method is by doing gardening(yup). Get a few grape trees growing and tend to them once a day - get them to prefect grape trees , because that increases the value for the fruit. You will want to get your Sim to max out the gardening skill - this will make things easier, but you need the grafting ability which unlocks at level 7.

Perfect Grapes sell for 33 each. Each tree gives maximum 10 grapes. Its takes about 2 to 3 days for the grapes to be ready for harvesting so you are looking at making over 30 000 a week if you have 40 grape trees. It takes time to tend to so many so I recommend your Sim quit his/her job. Another advantage to having so many is that it will improve the skill faster.

The real money maker  is the U.F.O plant. It sells for 120 each. The only problem is that it takes a long time before you can harvest it. A way around this is to splice a UFO cutting onto a tomato tree - the tomato tree can be harvested daily. By splicing the two you will be able to harvest the trees almost daily. When you have about 20 of these perfect tomato/UFO trees you are looking at making over 20 000 PER DAY selling the harvest. You will want to keep doing this until you have about 500 000 household funds. The more money you have the more you will make every week.

STEP 2 - Sit back and do whatever

               Above you can see ( print is small, sorry) my guy earned 38 000 this week.

Once your Sim has completed the Fabulously Wealthy Aspiration get your second Sim ( husband or wife or whoever living with you) to Complete the Fabulously Wealthy aspiration as well . What you can do is let this Sim harvest and sell the fruit to be able to complete the aspiration. Once you are satisfied with the amount you are making every week from investments go to build mode and place all the trees in your inventory - this will store the trees if you want to use them again in the future. When you have about 800 000 total your Sims combined will be making 76 000  per week - by doing nothing - leaving you time to do other things.

 

For more info on how to improve your life if you are struggling with real life moodlets take a look around here

True Mercy for the Rhinos? A Way permanently End their suffering?

 

We live next to a nature reserve and yesterday I saw 3 rhinos grazing next to the fence of the reserve. I wondered how long they will live and when they will be poached like so many others in South Africa. Why with so many charities already existing to "save the rhino" are rhino poaching's rising?

Rhino poaching is a horrific thing. They shoot the poor animal and then hack of its horn – sometimes the animal is still alive while its horn is being hacked off. All this is done for money, because the worth of that horn is more than gold. For poachers a rhino is basically an animal with golden horns. The horns are sold to those who believe the horn have great medicinal properties.

Let us talk figures. From the year 2000 till 2007 the number of rhino’s poached was under 30 a year. In 2008 the number skyrocketed to 83 which was almost 8 times more than 2007 where only 13 were murdered. Then in 2009 a 122 were killed. In 2010 there were 333 killed. Two years later in 2012 the number doubled to 668 rhinos killed. That is frightening.

Charities

So what is the solution? Is there one? Currently there are a lot of charities raking in money to “save the rhino”, but the figures shows clearly that whatever these charities are doing it is not actually saving the rhino. In fact – many people and companies are actually profiting from this where you donate money and a small portion actually goes towards “saving the rhino”, but most towards companies and people. In the end what the figures show is that the number will continuously increase until all the rhinos are eventually wiped out.

What will we write about the history of the rhino when it’s finally extinct? The rhino was horrifically poached to extinction and suffered greatly based on a belief that it cures cancer and other illnesses. Well done humans.

Dehoring

One method to try and “save the Rhino” is to dehorn them. This requires sedating them and carefully cutting of the horn to make it worthless to poachers. This sounds like a good idea, but unfortunately did not work. You cannot completely remove the horn so when you cut it off there is still a small stump left. That small stump is still very valuably and poachers still killed the dehorned rhinos. Some poachers killed the Dehorned Rhinos simply to make it easier for them to find Horned Rhinos.

Also, the horn grows back. You have to dehorn the poor animal every year to keep it at minimal length. The costs involved to dehorn one rhinos is estimated to be around US$1,000. To dehorn all the rhinos in the Kruger national park only once will cost US$5.8-8.8 million. And not all the Rhinos survive the dehorning process –there are sometimes veterinary complications while the animal is under anesthetic that may result in death. The more frequently the rhinos are immobilized, the greater the risk.

Poisoning the Horn

Another method is injecting poison into the horn so that when people digest the horn it will make them sick, but this requires the rhino to be sedated and not all survive this process.

A Solution?

It would seem that we humans are at a loss. We do not have any way to “save the rhino”. Every year the number increases no matter what is being done to prevent it. No matter what we do the rhinos suffer. Will we give Mercy to the Rhinos? Is there a way to end their suffering permanently? The only mercy we can give them is to kill them all. Shoot them to save them. Kill them before the poachers get to them – because when the poachers get to them they will be hacked to death and left bleeding. Most will protest a solution like this, because it is not humane or morally the right thing to do. But if being humane is being compassionate we can see that humans are not humane. The compassionate thing to do is to make sure that no Rhino suffers ever again – what then would you do to end their suffering?

Sneaky, Very Sneaky: Brand shrinking

 

 

This is something I did not even notice for a while. Cadbury's chocolate have effectively reduced their 200g slabs down to 180g and the 100g slabs to 90g while keeping prices the same and not telling anybody about it. They say they do this to keep away from hiking the price – basically for the good of the consumers. Unfortunately, reducing the amount of grams that is bought while keeping the price the same is still making it cost more. And now the prices have gone up anyway.

It is not just the chocolate - Colgate toothpaste was reduced from 100ml to 75ml. All Gold tomato sauce shrank from 750ml to 700ml and some cold drinks cans shrank from 340ml to 330ml. Very sneaky, because the product is now more expensive so the companies get more money.

And people do not notice – I did not notice. One day I went into the shop and say a special on 90g Cadbury slabs and asked myself “was it not 100g before?”. It makes me wonder what other products we usually buy have decreased the weight sold. Interesting.

Prices are going up and packages are shrinking – This is happening all over the world . When I was a kid I liked buying chips, but they had almost no chips in them. Only a quarter of the packet had chips in it and the rest was air. It was like paying for air. Today I was feeding the cats and noticed less food came out than I remembered. I am not a 100% sure of this, because I never really looked at the weight of the cans.

At the moment there is not really anything we can do about this – sure you can stop buying the product in protest, but it would not make a difference. Even if everybody stopped buying from one company – that would hurt the company yes, but result in people losing their jobs and there aren’t a lot of those around lately. Without a job you have no income and with no income you cannot afford the house or even food. We all are trapped with the fear of money. And with no money to spend it is less money for the economy and so the economy suffers.

Investigate the Basic Income Guarantee – this would end poverty and inject more money into the economy which would result in a stable economic system.

Day 181 - Can memories actually influence Taste?

 

Continuing with the food like and dislike point.

As a kid I did not like broccoli. Another thing I did not like was spinach and it was also about the sugar point. No matter how tasty Pop ‘Eye made it look it was pretty nasty stuff for me since it was the opposite of sugar.

So why do we dislike and like different food? The human body is born with the same stuff for all of us. We have the same taste buds so what makes me like a food and another dislike the same food? One food sort I still so not like is Liver. Chicken liver is nasty stuff, but some people really like it. Liver is very nutritious, but taste horrible. The first time I heard of liver I linked it to my own liver – meaning it was weird to eat chicken liver, because I have liver. Never mind that I also have meat like a chicken – that did not bother me – but the word liver was gross and so the food was gross.

If I was born in a village in some forest I would probably like eating some insects, because that is what I am used to. It would seem that food taste pretty much the same to all of us, but location, memories, ideas and believes have made us like and dislike a particular taste. It is very fascinating, because a belief we have created that this food type is gross will actually make some get nauseous and throw up. It is all simply and idea created. Some food the body actually does react to though like those with gluten allergy or lactose intolerant.

Sugar is like magic – add it in things and people like and buy it. Along with gluten most things in a grocery store has sugar in it. Why? Because then it taste good and people buy it and the company makes money. They get us used to sweet things from childhood with those “its good for your kids” sugar laced cereal and then we get hooked on sugar and keep buy it till the day our bodies give out.

What would a grocery store look like if real studies were made on the effect of a particular product and they actually warn you about it on the box like they do with cigarettes? ON the coke can it will say – WARNING: HIGH SUGAR INTAKE MAY CAUSE DIABETES. What if all harmfull products were removed from the shelves? The store will stand pretty empty as most things can harm the body. Alas, they do not warn people. Not even on Alcohol. On Every can it should say – WARNING: ALCOHOL MOST DANGEROUS DRUG ON EARTH AND CAUSES MORE DEATH THAN ANY OTHER DRUG. Nope, instead they only warn about cigarettes.

Music Today cannot be Called Music - Its All about SEX/Money

 

When I was in school I liked the songs that played on the radio. The station played the current popular songs. My parents would be in the car and say that the music is shit - really bad music and could not understand why we liked the music. Now - many years later - I tune in the same radio station and the music is shit - it is really bad and I cannot understand why people like listening to this crap.

This is a pattern that repeats every generation. The music I listened to and liked was mostly influenced by the Media and friends at school. This was in the late 90's and onwards. Back then music was really not as bad as it is today, but definitely worse than music that came before. In comparison to true musicians and artists like Mozart and Queen most if not all music on the radio today cannot be called music anymore. If you tune in to a popular radio station almost all the songs are about sex. Here are some songs that recently played repeatedly on the radio:

Kesha Die Young :

Young hunks, taking shots
Stripping down to dirty socks
Music up, gettin' hot
Kiss me, give me all you've got
It's pretty obvious that you've got a crush (you know)
That magic in your pants, it's making me blush (for sure)

Kesha Take it off:

And they turn me on.
When they Take It Off.
When they Take It Off.
Everybody Take It Off.

Songs about taking off all your clothes while dancing at a party. Now the target group - the people who become religious fans - are young teenagers. They are the ones being influenced by this noise/music. I was definitely influence by music of my day - at least the music and lyrics was not about sex. Sex was not used or needed to promote and advertise music. Today you have ridiculous dumbed down lyrics cleverly placed over catchy tunes with female vocalist wearing hardly anything in the music Video - no effort went into the music to make a song. Instead all effort is placed on getting the songs sold to make money.

That is really the only way to make money in the music industry today. Quick, sexual with no vocal talent and spending millions just to advertise the song and make people like it - all for money. Pop artists are like the porn stars of the music industry. The question is what effect this abuse has on children who listen to this? Those artist become role models to these children and the role models represent sex. Something needs to done. Artists have a responsibility towards the fans, but none take responsibility for the music they write - its all about the money.

What is Strength Really?

 

Strength and Weakness - Here I am going to look at the definitions of the words strength and weakness, how I defined the words in the past and how I redefined them for myself now

Here I will start with how I looked at strength/weakness in school:

In school, strength and weakness played a role. In sports you want to be strong to be a good player - make the team to show your friends and the girls how strong you are. If you don't make the team, you are weak. I was never a sports fan and neither were my friends. I was a surfer and skateboarder and we used to make fun of the ''jocks'' taking sports so seriously, but most of these jocks were friends as well.

Strength was ego. Strength was muscles. Strength was not crying.  Bullies showed their strength by picking on the weak. Strength was competition to always be better than others. Strength was being a rebel and breaking the rules. Weakness was being beaten by bullies. Weakness was being the silent type. Weakness was being the weirdo, the geek, the loser, the ugly and the guy who never managed to get a girl. Weakness was not ''going with the flow'' and not doing what everybody else was doing. Weakness was being smart. Strength was good - Weakness was bad.

I was neither strong or weak in school, but could see how important it was in terms of being accepted or rejected. To sum it up - Strength and weakness had a lot to do with outer appearances and how you ''acted'' /behaved and interacted within your social environment. So, strength and weakness did not only go to physical appearance/muscle, but also extending to personality/characteristics/behavior and one’s position/place within the social networks/environments.

Now, here are some relationships between strength and weakness when having a look at human nature:

Now let’s look at it from a global scale. Strength Is Military - countries flexing their military muscles, physically and through machinery/systems/weapons to show they are better - competition. Just like in school where strength is muscles and the machinery/artillery/weapons are what characteristics/personality traits/behaviors can be used to ‘show off’ ‘strength’ on a ‘mental level’. Thus participating in this idea we accept and allow war to exist even within ourselves, in our ‘small worlds’, from childhood. For example: Weakness is seen to be 3rd World Countries along with the poor. We accept and allow poverty to exist, because we would rather flex military muscle / money and not risk our economy - than aiding the poor to eradicate poverty - otherwise we risk being equal, where strength and weakness does not exist: As in, “I can’t be strong unless others are weak, so therefore – I will keep the weak in their place, so that I can remain in my definition of strong”. Like in school where you would rather beat and pick on the "weaklings" instead of assisting and supporting them, and by doing this in the ‘small worlds’ - you accept and allow it to exist in the ‘big world’ where the strong prey on the weak, where the rich prey on the poor, and so we in the small and the big accept and allow the consequence of the polarity of strength and weakness, of poverty and the rich. Because, for the ‘strong to exist’, the ‘weak must exist’ – and so therefore, we will not change because of that definition of who we are in/as the illusion, idea, perception and belief of what it means to be ‘strong’. So, as children – we ‘prey’ on the weak, as grown-ups – we ‘prey’ on the weak; it’s an inherent accepted and allowed nature within us humans, where you’re stuck in either the strong/weak polarity and/or on the ‘outside’, mentally, physically or because of your life/living conditions. Why are we individually and collectively accepting and allowing such a polarity to exist within us? Why have we not considered equality, assistance, support?

Fast forward a few years with me starting with the Desteni process and me being on the farm. Everything I have learnt about strength and weakness throughout my life was not real - it is all just an act - a means to fit in and a means of survival to always be the best. ''The Strong will prosper and the weak will perish'' - so we beat on the weak so that we look stronger and better.

Strength - what is it really? Here is how I see strength now:

Strength is me - I am strength. It is not something outside myself like muscles or acting - It is who I am as a presence, as a ‘way of being/living’. In this, this self-strength is not defined by/through being attached to a polarity of weak/weakness, meaning there isn’t something/someone in my outside world that I use/abuse to make me feel strong/superior. Strength is/should be a living expression, a stand of character, a stability of presence. Meaning, it is a form of stability and self-trust that no matter what you face in life there is a knowing and certainty that you are able to walk through it. Strength is being consistent. Strength is walking through resistance you experience inside yourself and push through and always be self-directed. Strength is to not accept and allow your actions and who you are to harm another being. Strength is to become the change you want to see in this world.

Weakness Is a gift - whenever I fall on a point it is not a point of judgement saying I'm too weak for this'', but rather it shows where I am not yet effective. My own personal Life Trainer/Buddy that reveals where I require some direction.

I will continue in the next post expanding more on strength to give some practical examples of how I have come to redefine strength for me