Food Sovereignty and Water Security Proposal

Richard C Cook and his wife Karen, Valentia Island, 2013 after I interviewed him for my radio show. He actually blew the whistle on the original Star Wars programme, for NASA. They are diamonds and Richard is a man dedicated to educating people in the risks of the corporate banking structure and helping implement systemic change, to Credit as A Public Utility.

This hasn't been discussed on any level yet, except in 1) formulating it with my friend Richard C Cook who is a monetary reform expert and 2) running this first draft past another friend in finance... from which the letter that follows the proposal was inspired. Last week, I sent that letter to every TD and Senator in government. I believe everyone needs to know at least as much as I do about banking, economics and protecting ourselves from a controlling debt millstone around our necks for the rest of time and generations to come.

My reason for sharing this proposal is that I would love to hear what families, individuals and local businesses would need money wise and what they are prepared to do to face the recovery challenges from the pandemic lock down; to reach and push for  climate action goals; and to maintain what they've found in the way of quality of life, having had this break from work and life as it was.

Proposal by Frances Micklem

Harmony Hall Think Tank, Kilkenny.

Food Security and UBI Programme financed by A New Public Bank, with Land and Water Resources as its Reserve Basis. 

I was asked to develop a sovereignty food economic policy. One of the policies in the Green Party manifesto is introducing a universal basic income. Ireland has a real opportunity to implement the policy as 550,000 people are suddenly on income support/corona virus benefit for ex-employed/or job seeker's allowance, having been laid off. Probably about 50% are on the usual €180 a week and there is a special payment of €350 a week for those suddenly in trouble, like self employed. The big players like supermarkets, meat, dairy, pharma and tech are all carrying on as normaI therefore it is all the skilled, ethical and smaller enterprises that have closed down. This is hopefully temporarily but many have lost all their money, business and staff. It is a good opportunity to think about recovery. I understand that Ireland is going to borrow 3 billion to aid that recovery.

The question I asked was:  how can we shift Ireland’s benefits system and recovery budget into a UBI (Universal Basic Income) in such a way that it could support all the sustainable projects in getting back off the ground. Secondly, could it even be scaled up, in order to meet environmental targets/agreements and food security matters. We have the land and the imagination but we will be starting from scratch. 

The first thing to do is to investigate is Public Banking and also look at public banking in Germany. We will have to implement UBI through a public banking set-up.

I am talking about much more than UBI. 

But UBI can be utilized to capitalize a network of local public development banks. 

I would also add that the idea of Ireland borrowing $3B for recovery is fraught with danger. Whoever it is from, it's a mortgage on Ireland's future. 

The programme needs to be rooted in an aspect of the real productive economy. The basis should be subsistence family farming plus spinoffs in local manufacturing and supply.

That makes sense with the move towards food sovereignty, that food supply is secure even with disruptions present and future to the supply chain. 

A way to proceed would be to contact all the closed businesses, organic, artisan, ethical, creative and small farmers and producers to work on their Start Up business plans: What they would need to start from scratch; what they will owe and to whom and also their business proposals to include a 'why' component, for example that they are feeding themselves, producing something for sale locally, looking after someone or something or reducing harmful practices.

Subsistence farming is 'mainly produce for oneself with little surplus'. Small farmers and organic growers myself tend to think how to up-skill and scale up their productivity, via reliable growing methods to provide a community resource but actually it is always the scaling up and trying to profit from surplus that leads to 1) exploitation (land and animals) and 2) people to overstretch themselves (physically and financially) and get into debt with more animals to house and feed, more automation, more vet, agri-chemical and bank payments etc. 

The Universal Basic Income programme and local land management and food production would go brilliantly. The main block will be that farmer's main money comes from European grants and they have to pay them straight out again, to vets and vaccinations and agrochemicals They are currently not offered any incentives for spraying less or moving towards better welfare or organic methods. The meat and dairy industries set the tone. It would take some power from them if there was an alternative slaughter avenue, like an ‘at home’ service and if people mainly had small holdings. The meat industry’s main leverage is that they decide when and whether to take farmer’s animals, sometimes only one or two at a time and for how much, including what weight of animal is too heavy, which in the past might have made extra money for the farmer. There is a high level of non-compliance in weighing-machines at factories to further compound the problem. 

The key to success is not to worry about the existing big industries or take them on. Instead, just connect the UBI programme to a raise in self-sufficiency or practical contribution by recipients.

The banking schemes and European grants don't have much interest for our purposes in this. They just funnel money upward through the existing commercial banking system and normally are only useful during an expanding economy; otherwise the loans are paid off through general inflation. 

Any Corona Virus recovery loan, innovation and agricultural loans are not really to help out businesses but are to get through what the EU assumes are going to be fairly short/mild impacts of climate changes, financial markets changing and pandemic.

UBI implementation

We can have UBI by direct spending against a community dividend account, without taxation and without government debt, but it could only be implemented EU-wide. The EU would not allow the Central Bank of Ireland to do it on our own. There is a case for bringing this proposal to governments in other European countries though as they are also facing into the prospect of borrowing my money from the IMF.

Another route that Ireland is free to implement is clearly formulate our primary goal which should be the creation/facilitation/encouragement of a solid subsistence economy rooted in the land. There are already quite a few families who live this way now as best they can, though it usually involves one or more members taking outside jobs. 

The problem in boosting this sector, as an economic base, is the lack of working capital for business operations and investment. We are not considering here the professional agricultural sector which has their own world of bank-financed operations with the pluses and minuses that go with that; i.e., agribusiness, characterized as running on loans with money that is then paid out for all kinds of technical overhead. Those farms are integrated into the EU and are often export-oriented.

Instead, this proposal is to make sustainable subsistence-plus market farming a viable and growing sector of the economy. Around such farms a village economy can re-form that includes markets for the excess farming production and local goods and services that the surrounding farms can utilize. Over time, this sector would completely change the economic/social/spiritual life of the nation. 

A Sustainability Bank

It is critical to consider where the working capital would come from? It would come from a new nonprofit public bank, capitalized at the grassroots level by deposits made by individuals who receive government payments, plus whatever could be acquired from the national budget as grants and for operational costs. Over time, anyone borrowing from the bank would also become a depositor, with their loans being administered though the bank. 

Fractional Reserve Basis

An institution becomes a bank when it is allowed to operate on a fractional reserve basis. For instance, at a 10% reserve rate, if the bank has deposits of 1 million, it is allowed to loan 10 million. Let’s call it a Sustainability Bank. 

The advantage of a bank is this fractional reserve feature. A bank actually creates money. It's a delegation of a sovereign state power.

Avoiding Usury

How the bank's money is loaned becomes extremely important. Loans should be interest-free. This has to be an absolute. As soon as you introduce usury, which should be defined as any amount of interest on lending, the institution starts sucking money out of the locality, or it causes inflation because prices rise so people can pay their loans. These are just economic laws. The bank should be a government agency, staffed by professional civil servants paid by the central government. 

Debt-forgiveness should be available on liberal terms. No one should have their home foreclosed on for any reason, including fluctuations in markets or national economic shocks. Loans should be available for a wide variety of purposes, linked to local economic sustainability, so long as a certain proportion of output is marketed locally. Purely subsistence uses don't need to be funded by this route. As soon as possible, loans should be made available for purchase of land, homes and buildings. 

Irish Sustainable Enterprise

Farms and businesses participating in the programme should receive a designation, as, for instance, an "Irish Sustainable Enterprise," entitling them to specific defined privileges. Provisional ISE status could be granted to allow people to start borrowing from the Sustainability Bank, with full membership granted after, say, five years of successful participation.

Loans should be available at numerous locations nationally; one possibility may be to link them to larger postal centres.

The commercial banks may fight this programme tooth and nail and will think of all the reasons it could fail, possibly activating their large lobbying capability and pressure politicians so we will have to be prepared to fight a major political battle. However, most of the political parties have said that ‘We’re all green parties now’ and that means some of the urgency has filtered through.  Also, there may be less resistance to this new economic system as current socio-economic policies and the benefits system depend on a transfer of wealth from rich to poor and this doesn’t.

Existing Irish Establishments That Could Be Re-Purposed

 Considering the question of whether our Credit Unions system could be applicable. 

The Irish League of credit unions is an excellent institution for the purposes credit unions are designed to meet. Credit unions are to help workers survive in the midst of a global economy that may be heading into a worldwide depression. 

This proposal would in no way attempt to replace them. However, the purposes of a system of sustainability banks to foster a local land-based economy, consisting of both farms and village markets are much different. 

Shift in Economic Basis From Money To Land & Labour

The sustainability banks are to shift the economic basis from money to the land husbanded by skilled labour. Some might say that doing this would be like trying to go back to medieval times but we could still have the benefit of modernized technology.

INTREO 

The INTREO group, who distribute benefits currently, are a public body although they are ruthless, charitable and supportive at the same time.

This proposal is in no way replaced by INTREO. They offer a public service to support people out of work and get them back into the money-based global economy. It has nothing to do with any kind of economic development or sustainability. 

It has the merit of consolidating welfare and employment programmes but the detriment of having life or death control over people's lives, particularly working class, which explains the ruthless element.

How Participants Could Be Recruited

There are many and various sustainability and permaculture but it will be interesting to attempt to connect with these competent, independent citizens.

Previous efforts to co-ordinate local shopping groups (who can buy organic staple foods in bulk more economically and divide them when they arrive) and establish Community Supported Agriculture schemes (Where a group pay a farmer all year around to enjoy the benefits of the harvest when they arrive, sharing the risks and surplus, while supporting the farmer during out of season periods. Also Community Gardens (which are proven to help volunteers mentally, emotionally and physically, as well as providing an education venue and usually a considerable amount of produce and pollinator sanctuary.  

The difficulty has been that most people who are independent want to stay independent; for example freezing their excess tomatoes or keeping a pig for meat. The little differences in ethics, of small holding operations, ends up separating them. That is even though they have a lot in common. 

In addition, most small producers and farmers are completely disillusioned and shut down from politics and shut off from what or how anyone else is doing in their community. There are still people with land and most rural residential properties even still sit on an acre each, which could be highly productive.

Questions that would need to be considered are whether people would be 'invited' to participate, like any other funding opportunity? Would unemployed people be 'required' to think of what they're trained or interested in contributing to it? What are the reasons why people would or would not get a loan from a new sustainability bank and would or would not consider subsistence living, instead of returning to the employment market? There is certainly a massive increase in joy at being busy at home during the lock-down so people have some recent experience of both lifestyles to compare. Would it be optional or would it replace one of the existing payments? Is it as a Covid 19 recovery option? Could it be set up in time?

Would there would be an 'expectation', once the sustainability bank was set up that these communities should use it or would it all be done through legislation?

The Sustainability Bank may not fund the UBI initially but it would be an effective programme for them to start simultaneously at least, as it would facilitate the first entrepreneurs, enterprises re-starting and other resourceful, already semi-productive, local groups and individuals to continue planning and producing, even within the quarantine, rather than be under pressure to find a job, however unsuitable, as soon as the lock down is eased.

When we say that producers must ensure that 'a certain proportion is kept local', we will have to specify how much, as producers are always tempted to upscale and profit from further afield. The other side of that to discuss and decide is; if the proportion that farmers had to sell locally was NOT too tightly defined, it might mean that mid-sized farms could assign a small acreage, at a time, to sustainable production and increase it when they were confident that everything grew and sold alright, through the initiative.

It would be useful if the idea of subsistence could be developed to include benefits for abstaining. So that harmlessness rather than contribution goals counted? (Developing here the wider value system needed for weighing up what consumer needs are, health and environment etc versus the old simple calculation of whether an initiative is economically viable) For example, if a household moved away from consuming animal-based products and found a way to stop buying one-use plastics or eliminated the use of transport or chemicals etc? 

Going forward, the initiative could be widened to offer farms in the 'professional agriculture sector' a way out. At the moment, they may have been integrated into the EU  funding and export system but are actually massively in debt and stressed (having been given loans to double the national herd and equip their farms with automated, expensive equipment and machinery, only to be told they must now meet zero emissions and get less and less for their produce). The sustainability bank could offer them a way out of that? The government administration would have to carefully regulate what imported products are allowed as well – nothing grown with substances that are banned here, be they fungicides, pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, artificial ripeners, chemical preservatives and flavour enhancers etc. 

Sanctuaries and a new wave of care/respite/charitable facilities could be considered of sufficient social value to receive a sustainability bank loan and extricate themselves from the current system competing for public contracts? For animals as well. At the moment, an animal shelter that wants to be a 'no kill' facility will lose it's small government stipend (2-20,000 per annum) whereas county dog and horse pounds command public funding up to 400,000 per annum and contracts go to carcass collection services and control units, with no welfare or rehoming policy and most notably some security companies without even an office in Ireland. Stray animals and retired dairy and other farm animals could be co-ordinated very differently as aspects of community production of manure, compost and renewable energy. In addition, loans to places that won't ever make money but provide a service or some other social good or enhancement will have to be worked out.

Most important will be consideration of who, exactly, decides what is of value in this new economic scheme? If senior civil servants are going to administer the initiative and new bank, it would be appropriate to have a comprehensive list and outline, from the beginning, to use as a precedent; a structure and range of activities that would count as Irish Sustainable Enterprises.

Limits of Proposal So Far

A proposal like this would benefit from a group working on it, for detail and development. However, as we are all on lock down and in need of urgent solutions, I wanted to share the basic idea, rather than only go through the slower policy channels that might not mean it reaches the coalition of people needed to bring it forward and make a sustainability bank system happen.

Bailout for the People

A public bank would provide a bailout for the people. There are so many who are not being supported in their important initiatives to change their ways of life, reduce carbon emissions, produce clean food or live minimally, avoid plastic. Most households before the pandemic had one person in the house, at least, having to go out to work, to pay bills. There is now a unique opportunity when these wage earners as well are rendered housebound, due to Covid 19, to explore the possibility for subsistence. 

A Stable and Reliable Capital Source For Food Security

But what would working capital include in this programme? What activities would be condidered worth funding and be tax-deductible?

Usually, working capital refers to cost of producing and processing inventory; things like purchasing seed and stock, feed and fertilizer, fuel, transfer to market, rental of market space, tools and equipment, etc.

A Sustainability Bank would provide a stable and reliable capital source for sovereignty food as I understand the term. The bank system could raise its reserve capital by sale of bonds to the Central Irish Bank.

The Sovereignty Food movement principles are sound but the question is always where's the money going to come from? The Sustainability Bank answers the question.  

It's simple, but we have been so brainwashed by the mythology and power of commercial banking that few can see it.

Bringing The Proposal of A Sustainability Bank to Europe

It might be a good contribution to develop this programme with a view to an EU-wide implementation. Italy's prime minister is desperate for help and has been refused by Germany. I'm sure Spain as well will be devastated and both have a good climate and a long food production tradition, where as we have the water. We have some great Irish MEPs at the moment both Independent and Green to provide a strong voice there. There is also a lot of pressure on Europe to meet the challenges of climate change, the pandemic and falling economies. There is also a strong branches of the Green Party in Europe in general. It could come to Brussels for discussion, from various different angles, serving different purposes for different country’s potential and needs.

Once the proposal has the political support, it will be crucial to host a conference for project definition. It cannot do everything so key must-have elements must be identified. 

A committee should be formed to scope out the proposal and for this it would be good to have 

1)   the early support from MEPs who can also help with introducing legislation. 

2)   A financial donor if we can find one. 

3)   Someone with knowledge of public central banking operations. 

4)   A publicist with media access. 

5)   Someone with an EU perspective. 

6)   A representative of the Irish sustainability culture. 

7)   A woman householder. 

8)   A young activist.

9)   Young Greens economist

10)A good facilitator. 

11)A technical expert. 

12)Representative of Social Justice Ireland

All must be committed, honest, without personal agendas or ego. Watch out for obstructionism. It's a time for leadership and followership. We need to have an initial conference of a few days, give assignments. Reconvene. Then draft a concise proposal that can be publicized.

13) Pilot projects in existing estates with walled gardens, market garden-sized polytunnels, out-of-work staff, local community and possibly CE schemes. For example, Discovery Park Castlecomer, Kilkenny (non profit education and local employer) and Duckett’s Grove Castle, Carlow – already under council’s management as a public amenity. 

My initial sense is that it would be better to start with Ireland. Then let it spread. The cornerstone is the land and the locality. It must be rooted. It will have to be legislated.  

Progress and Background

Please find to follow past articles mainly from The Public Banking Institute 

Six-part series from 2011 on Credit as a Public Utility:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3p48upXJaA&list=PLFB9A12F6D128A4C6

2013 Talk on Gaia Plan for the Public Banking Institute:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVC6kIVGUyo&t=292s

Archived Articles from Global Research Website:

https://www.globalresearch.ca/bailout-for-the-people-the-cook-plan/11397

https://www.globalresearch.ca/an-emergency-program-of-monetary-reform-for-the-united-states/5494

https://www.globalresearch.ca/universal-basic-income-2020-election/5692324

https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-morality-of-economics-the-key-issue-of-the-twenty-first-century/6439

https://www.globalresearch.ca/credit-as-a-public-utility-the-key-to-monetary-reform/5772

https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-usury-based-system-towards-a-worldwide-financial-disaster/5587245

https://www.globalresearch.ca/a-monetary-reformer-in-kindergarten/13619

Global Research articles are here:

https://www.globalresearch.ca/search?q=richard+c+cook&x=14&y=12

Monetary Interpretation of The Lord of the Rings:

https://billtotten.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/a-monetary-reformers-interpretation/

Book: We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform is available here on Kindle:

https://www.amazon.com/We-Hold-These-Truths-Monetary/dp/098021906X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform: Richard C. Cook: 9780980219067: Amazon.com: Books We Hold These Truths: The Hope of Monetary Reform [Richard C. Cook] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. In the wake of this U.S. economic meltdown, the mainstream population faces four possible futures: 1. Adjust and accept diminished prosperity www.amazon.com

https://www.publicbankinginstitute.org/2020/04/08/pbis-open-letter-to-congress-a-critical-care-bailout-for-main-street-in-the-face-of-covid-19/

PBI’s Open Letter to Congress: A “Critical-Care” Bailout for Main Street in the Face of COVID-19 – Public Banking Institute Honorable Members of the 116th United States Congress: The Public Banking Institute has been working since 2011 to return control of money and credit to states and communities and create a network of publicly-owned federal, state and municipal banks that would establish a safe, low-cost alternative to the current exploitative financial system controlled by Wall Street. www.publicbankinginstitute.org

We don't have to say so explicitly at this stage but what we are really doing, and what we must do, is take back the sovereign power of money creation from the private bankers to whom the state ceded it during the last 500 years in a devil's bargain. Money and banking should be a public utility, not the means of enslaving people. Part of doing this is tying money to the organic God-given creativity of the land. (Whereas it was tied to the Golden Peg of what gold a country actually had and in current banking is simply tied to debt and no actual physical assets)

You will notice that all economic discourse takes the global privately owned banking and financial system for granted. All discussion is essentially about handouts that may fall from the Money Masters' table. Even UBI is about trickle down.  Many others in world history have recognized this before but they have been suppressed. We need to know what we are doing, to make this happen. 

Two possibilities to discuss from the ‘Bailout for the People’ article, are a Dividend Approach or something like the Alaskan Permanent Fund. They are both ways that recognize the prosperity of a country and ensure the people share in the benefit of it. 

Water

All eyes will be on Ireland one day soon as we are the only country, possibly in the world already, that still gets enough rainfall. Even the UK has to impose a hosepipe ban every summer. We have been fighting the idea of paying for our water (as it was already included in another tax) but we should include water in this policy as much as land and food security. Like Norway did, when natural gas was found off their shores. The whole country benefited from the prosperity. I think, in addition, they don't pay for their share of the gas either. 

We gave all the rights to the gas, found here, to Shell.  (The only Irish benefit was that Shell accepted AXA Insurance’s quote – a mixed blessing as if anyone did succeed in bringing a claim against Shell, it would be an Irish company and money paying for the clean up). 

So, no dividends there.

Many industries and farmers have contaminated considerable amounts of fresh water here; we have all wasted a lot; we have been rained on and flooded a lot; therefore water is a hot topic here. However, it is not yet discussed in a sensible way that recognises that wars will be fought over it soon enough. 

Therefore, most importantly, a part of this proposal is that water is central to our economic policy. It should be the resource that pays dividends. The public sustainability bank should be rooted in water, equally to food and land, possibly even more so. To a country like ours, who has to meet climate targets, there would be an added advantage of putting a value on water: It would put pressure on polluting industries, as every individual would be invested in monitoring their water source and waterways and returning the water table, aquifers, sea and domestic systems to pristine. 

The participants and dividends could extend to city dwellers as well by a system where they manage their water use, use grey water systems, stop using chemical detergents or become minimalist in their usage and ‘sell units back to the grid’ or some such familiar exchange, like electricity. 

I anticipate that this policy could bring unity between parties, so there is no reason to confine it to the Green Party. Legislation will be needed so a broad coalition should be developed. It could also restore people’s faith in government and be a massive step in the direction of sustainability, social justice and food security.  Therefore, water resources should absolutely be a reserve basis for the Sustainability Bank. 

I hope this will suffice as an initial working paper and thanks for the invitation to propose a policy. 

How Exactly To Implement UBI Safely Through Public Banking

Dear all, 

This proposal was written in consultation with monetary reform expert and retired US Treasury Analyst, Richard C. Cook. (Author of a six part series: “Credit As A Public Utility” and the book: We Hold These Truths, The Hope of Monetary Reform). He wrote a UBI implementation policy for America’s Green Party 10 years ago, called The Cook Plan. 

Mr. Cook has developed the following plan adapted to Ireland, on request from Frances Micklem at Harmony Hall Think Tank, with whom he has been able to explore all the existing economic, agricultural, social and pandemic-related challenges here in Ireland and assess the risks and benefits of using existing infrastructure, benefits system and banking institutions. 

He found that theUBI must be implemented through a new Public Bank, and we have outlined how that bank can be capitalized, immediately and going forwards, to restore local economies, rather than increasing the national debt. 

Capitalizing The Bank, building trust in green economics and illustrating the benefits to all of green policies.

We propose three initial ways to capitalize the public bank/community bank or what we have called the Sustainability Bank. The first two sources are front-running Green Party proposals already. In addition to capitalization, initial administrative costs would be met from the state budget.

1) The Carbon Tax

 Firstly, the ring-fenced carbon tax. The benefit and necessity of a bank structure, to this proposal, is that a bank, by definition, can lend multiple times more money than it has in reserve.A reserve ratio of six to one to eight to one is recommended. If the carbon tax were put into the Sustainability Bank, it would effectively multiply the bank’s spending and lending power to the community. As its loans are repaid in full the actual reserves of the bank remain stable.

By using a portion of the reserve for administrative costs, once the bank is established, interest-free loans could be offered to sustainable initiatives starting up again or new. This would include sustainable farming serving local markets. In Germany, for example, the commercial banks have only 12% of the market. Here in Ireland, 99% of mortgages and 95% of small business loans are with our five commercial banks. An estimated 40% of the cost of European goods is to pay interest to banks and other parts of the global financial system. Implementation of a public Sustainability Bank would cut out the expenses of bank interest for small farms/growers/services and local market economies. Building local communities would reduce destructive emissions from transporting, while also building food security and monitoring bigger polluters. Customers of this bank would have this monitoring and responsibility function, as they would all have invested in the Sustainability Charter and would be keen to expose industry emissions non-compliance.

Government must detail further toxic and wasteful activities to which the carbon tax will soon apply. For example, use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, manufacture and sale of products containing microplastics, excessive use or contamination of fresh water and automation in large food plants – I refer to Pasta Concepts that I know of but it is commonplace – that produce over a tonne of pasta every lunch time that is wasted as they leave the machines running but all take a lunch break simultaneously. Also limitation of run-off from intensive farms, if accounted for, would encourage a reduction in herd numbers and exploitation. 

In addition to taxation, there must be a clear ban on the import of products by supermarkets, which have been produced using substances banned here in Ireland or our farmers will continue not to stand a chance of selling their harvested crops. 

Re. the Carbon Dividend Policy: Meat exporters should not have their carbon tax rebated as soon as they have a customer receipt outside the state (The Carbon Dividend Policy currently suggests this in a foot note on the first page.), as it is promoting export which the party is trying to stop. Only individuals should be considered for concessions and rebates, not businesses. Businesses and corporations will pass on their extra carbon costs to the consumer anyway. If the tax works and emissions are reduced, the bank structure will ensure that the public Sustainability Bank is still making money, through its other functions and because dividends aren’t reduced as less carbon tax becomes payable.

2) Welfare and Covid-19 Emergency Payments

The second way of capitalizing the public Sustainability Bank is by the welfare and emergency payments. To shift them into a UBI payment, they should be paid, from the start, to recipients throughthe public bank. This would ensure another large investment; several hundred thousand passing through the new bank each week. All payments should stand at €350 a week across the board. This guarantees a massively positive association in people’s minds that the Green Party’s UBI and carbon tax plan succeeded in substantially raising their benefits and quality of life. 

The UBI can then actually be described and seen asthe dividend that government has talked of that every citizen will receive. Not a little bit here and there, but the Green Party will have facilitated a reliable unconditional basic income, considerably greater than current Job Seekers allowance and valuing all citizens equally, while giving them the chance to build self-sufficiency, subsistence and community-living, care and service into their post-Covid working lives.

So first, we must get legislation in place for the public Sustainability Bank. There is no time to waste, as many experts believe the economic recession resulting from the pandemic will have severe and long-lasting effects on all nations, including the EU and US. To meet an uncertain future without plunging into massive debt and mortgaging its future for decades, Ireland needs the public Sustainability Bank, the UBI, and food and water security to be in place immediately. 

Nor will the Irish taxpayer have to bail out the five “pillar banks” again, from whom we will otherwise have had to borrow 3 billion at high interest rates, as has been proposed as a recovery plan. We also explain how quantitative easing is still a version of commercial banking (as is the State-owned Corporate Strategic Bank started in 2015) and how massive borrowing in the global commercial marketplace will devastate Ireland’s future. In fact, Ireland is facing national bankruptcy if we must mortgage our future to the global financial system just to get over the pandemic. 

Additionally, the public Sustainability Bank will quickly have the ability to aid sustainable projects to recover and finance new enterprises for people, unable to return to the workforce, with a basic income. This will also allow Ireland to move toward food self-sufficiency, with a target of 75%.

A public Sustainability Bank doesn’t depend on pure credit, lending and interest but is rooted in Ireland’s real resources of land and water. The bank charter would include how loan decisions should be based on preservation, food security, sustainable production facilities, services and skills. Therefore it will support productivity and/or reduction in harmful activities/materials. 

3) Water, land and skilled labour as reserve basis for the Sustainability Bank.

A crucial proposition we have made is to include water as a reserve basis for the Sustainability Bank. It plays across the broad macro economics of food supply, within which access to clean sustainable water supply is recognized as a crucial resource dependence. In leveraging this theme to the maximum, we have started to articulate how a public Sustainability Bank would leverage water as a collateral / asset base in the proposal, for coastal, rural and city dwellers. 

Thus there will be less and less need for people or the government to borrow from commercial banks and increase our debt, thereby risking Ireland’s future for generations to come.  

Please do not hesitate to ask any questions or to arrange a meeting with Mr. Cook. He is willing to work with us every step of the way, in understanding all aspects of the plan and any concerns. He would help build an understanding of how it fits in to the current economic situation here in Ireland and how it can be implemented, without directly interfering with the work of the main banks and industries which can continue business as usual as best they can. 

This will be a bailout for the people and the system change we need, based on Ireland’s real resources. The Sustainability Bank and UBI also offer a commitment to helping the recovery from the pandemic, without pushing our financial and climate change difficulties down the road by increasing our national debt. 

Many thanks, Frances Micklem 

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Introduction To My Next Book

Replace Responding with Creating

Self-improvement, healing and spiritual expansion are infinitely perfectible tasks but they do not acknowledge your own infinity. The time has come where you have to accept that you are already there, a competent human being. The skills and tools you used for coming to terms with your past and navigating your present must now be put to creative work. 

It might seem like an assumption that enough meditation has been done. Could it really be that you’re taking full responsibility for yourself and your life situations automatically now? Can you really just forge ahead, suddenly self-assured that your intuitions, choices and actions are solid, intrinsically mindful and coming, routinely, from a place of consciousness?

 Yes, because just consider how it changes your identity, from seeker to master, from living a life of running repairs to a life of vital representation. There are so many fascinating and helpful spiritual concepts that this one of having arrived is overlooked. It is the one that grounds us in the present moment, with every possibility and nowhere else we have to get to first. 

Everyone’s journey is different. Some people are comfortable being humbled by the awesome realizations and synchronicities that occur. They do not want to recognize the leadership role, a call to action or creative opportunity being presented. Others who are building their self-awareness are so rigorous in dismantling the conditioned ego structure that they never get around to building a new structure, based on their findings. What are our coherence, clarity and fearlessness for, if not to use, in service. 

For a long time, the only area of service we were called to, was healing. This was just a developmental stage for our compassion, practicing expanding our kindness to beyond the immediately obvious. Maybe also to be able to witness our increased effectiveness, through reflections from others we helped through energy work. 

But, did we not say that we were working on our own inner authority? We have, officially and for the most part, let go any need for approval from others. Unfortunately, after a slip up in self-referencing, many good people decide afresh that they are still stuck in self-doubt and a new cycle of self-development and further education begins. Instead, we should press on with the creative process, stopping only to comfort ourselves that there is bound to be traces of our old creations around. 

There is nothing to prove, physics has demonstrated all the principles we are working with, a century ago. Nonetheless, people who have bothered to learn how to consciously work with the energy field are here, at this time, to do something important. They have a heightened ability to notice what is happening in their environment and happening for others. They are more inclined to care, as they revel in clearing negative charge and seeing unprecedented solutions. Word went around that you should be responsive not reactive. For all these reasons, many make the mistake of wasting their precious resources on a bottomless pit of despair – responding to perceived needs. 

All the old favourites keep us ungainfully employed; exposing the truth, advocating for justice, rescuing from cruelty and encouraging the jaded. This book will explore how all that has been learnt can be applied to generate a magnificent vision and bring it to realization. There is still a place for silence, gratitude, meditation, divining and other energy clearing. I would go as far as to say they should start the day. And what should you use that time to deepen your awareness of? You are already at your most powerful. You have been around the block and have seen enough to know. You trust yourself. You can consider what you are going to make too. Start small or big, do little or loads, but bear in mind that the frequency of your mood has fifty times more impact than the physical creation. 

'Where The Streets Are Paved With Gold'

The red Carpet Treatment...For Oneself!

So some professional guy made this start on the avocado gallery and it's great but 

everyone agreed he had to go. Turning up at all hours, a bit funny about this and that. So from then on it has been girl power all the way! 

This is what is was like last summer, the original gravel and a bit of old carpet I got from the dump and some beautiful wicker chairs and a tiled table that I thought were unique until I went canvassing in Kilkenny and found every single porch had the exact same set! I still like them, they were perfect to serve my vegan breakfast on sunny mornings...to try and persuade my guests that a plant-based life is the way to happiness!

This is a picture that one great French couple sent me, taken right there and obviously arranged to show my classic own-design mugs 'I Love Creating A New Reality' which they obviously found funny as well!

I so wanted to lay the lovely floorboards Rachael had given me from the dance studio, but I just hadn't been able to get the sand and cement sufficiently level to lay the insulation and boards. It's a subtle job! I abandoned everything until my friends said, what about raising a section in pallets. I said I only have 3.5 pallets. Guess how many it took?! Yes! I went mad with the jigsaw that I had bought to do up the cabin. Great friend, Jordi Medina did all the work but somehow just through standing by with ideas and materials, the skills rubbed off and I took to power tools like a  duck to water.

This is my neighbour's duck who I found in my meditation water garden one day!

So, through the window it's possible to see the cabin, which we did up and brilliantly provides rain water via hose pipe to the polytunnel as well. Gravity rocks! Inside, I dutifully wrapped the pallets in radon barrier plastic that I had handy and sealed it with polytunnel plastic repair tape. I didn't and don't want the walkway to be a mice run, however much I would like them to escape somehow...just not live happily ever after under the floorboards! If you see the distinction? 

I felt it was a low point went the dog could only find a breeze block to lie on. It seemed to mark an extreme lack of comfort and an extreme act of loyalty...really hope that represents my past not my future!

I'm only sharing these next two pictures as it shows what a mess had formed on either side and how difficult it was for me to prioritise getting dressed properly and out of my house coat when there was so much highly engaging DIY to be done!

This is the walkway finished. It wasn't straight forward as I realised afterwards that one only staggers floor boards to make sure there are no weak points where several are joined in the same place. In this project, the boards mainly reached right across, so I went back after I created the borders and replaced the bits and pieces with whole boards from the start. You can't beat a jig saw, chalk rather than a pencil and a decent battery screw driver!! It looks amazing!

This one reminded me of some European Union symbol which seemed right for the lock down we're in. 

I have become convinced that I should turn this place into a spaceship as its foundations are so akin to the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek. I am also working on UFO contact, via telepathy, so at least I can meet other beings with respect if I come across any. 

It was almost by telekinesis that the area beyond was cleared and the patio laid in one day. The stones each have more than a unique shape, there is a spirit and a will and purpose to each, I'm sure of it!

Next I will mix and set those stones in place and work down towards the mediterranean area at the other end! I know I've done the right thing sustainability-wise as the plum tree, two olives and 11 avocado trees are all in full leaf and loving each others company, roots-wise. No social distancing going on there, they're intertwined.

But let's look at our gardens and balconies and other growing spaces and nurture as many oxygen-generating plants and detoxification-projects as we can. Each small, personal reality counts!

How To Extend Our Spiritual Capacity

Dr Cowen Talks about Covid 19

When I shared this short video before, which is at least an interesting speculation about there being a connection between pandemics and launching of new technologies...

My friend commented: Thank you Frances for sharing this. The doctor in the video is talking about extending spiritual capacity. How one can achieve it?

What a good question thanks!! That called for a proper answer, I decided, so here it is:
I have decided to write 8 bullet points but they’re more like canon balls than bullets as it turns out! This is stuff that we all know at some level, I just like to articulate it in new ways from time to time, to jog some memories! 

We are all one energy

1) We are all connected in a more fundamental way than via the internet. Another energy flows between us and other living things. The more we individually think about this energy, the better the connection we achieve. Instead of the fractious aggravation of trying to get on line or trying to think clearly when on line, the other connection is a deepening sense that we are all from one source. This creates feelings of well-being; strength because we realize we are like nature; synergy (two things working better together than separately) and affinity, which is our intrinsic (built-in) loving understanding of each other.

Getting Past Black & White Thinking

2) We can relax our mind’s hold, over all our other capable faculties. When you logically consider that we are related to, responsible for and creating any of the things life brings us, the mind will argue. It reacts with yes and no. It will identify happily with some parts, like the statement that we are made of the same stuff as the stars but reject others, like the statement that we are equally related to the industries that pollute the natural world. The way to develop, past this polarized view, is to notice your thoughts and repeat the phrase ‘This aint good, it aint bad, it just is”… preferably in a Southern drawl but any accent will do as you’re just reminding yourself to take the mind’s argument out of it and therefore all the stressful resistance, which moves you towards acceptance.

How To Self-Reference

3) The achieving of acceptance, aka a moment’s quiet from incessant thinking, both constructive and not, allows you to hear yourself and practice the crucial, life-saving habit of self-referencing. The answers are not outside, they are inside. We have got very used to asking questions like asking the doctor what is wrong? Asking scientists what is safe? Asking google how to do things and looking to the law for what is right and wrong. These are, at best, unsatisfactory external constructs. We should use this time of limited physical roaming, to explore our inner landscape. If something occurs to you, or something happens around you, ask yourself how do I feel about that? How should I respond? And why? Why does that scare me? Why does that make me happy? You will start to see what you appreciate and what you maybe just endure in the life you have. You might notice what your mood is actually routinely like and what contribution you make to the world party. You will be able to observe the many levels of interactions that are usually hidden, in the daily rush.

Developing Self Trust

4) This self-referencing brings you to a really healthy state of inner authority (generally referred to as self respect). We make hundreds of small choices every day. In corona virus and technological disruption-terms, you can work on making sure you’re not making those decisions under the influence of social media, peer pressure or even old habits and insecurities. With some mental discipline, you start to become conscious and mindful; trusting yourself even as you revert to autopilot, on how to spend your time and what to eat and what requires and deserves your energy. Requiring and deserving being two different things, for which we have to work on discernment to tell them apart. 

Conscious Healing of The Physical Body

5) There are some that say consciousness is healing in itself. I totally agree. I would say that the energy clearing I do for people (and places, animals, plants & situations) is literally a honed ability and a constant willingness to pay attention. Say, for example, you’re feeling terrible, gripped by pain and in a dark state of mind? That is a good time to practice mind over matter. It is not random whether you will get better or worse and worse. The spiritual take on a dis-ease can begin and ensure a complete recovery, by giving you a perspective (as opposed to immersion in the experience). You are developing an additional awareness that can shine a light on your struggling body. The throat represents the challenge o expressing yourself and saying what you need and want to say. The lungs represent your life force, so the virus represents oppression. The antidote for a release could be to watch Braveheart ‘You can take my life but you cannot take my freedom’. Or read about Nelson Mandella, who was 28 years wrongfully incarcerated as a political prisoner. He said that his mental and emotional freedom were much more important and always available to him. That’s a good approach to the lock down actually too.

Keep Your Emotional Energy Right

6) But, where to start with self-healing, energy healing, spiritual work? It is enough to remember that medicine treats the symptoms but only you yourself can treat the source and cause. When I started 18 years ago, I cleared, first (and still do regularly) my emotional condition – detoxing from all the upset of injustice and then uploading some gratitude for anything positive I could think of. Sometimes there are slim pickings and sometimes there are loads of amazing things that come to mind, to be glad of. And, of course, the more you look, the more you find! You end up, like me, with a cheerful disposition; a little bit hopeful, like a puppy with the recurring thought “Sure, I’ll give it another go, they may have a treat for me this time”. Interestingly, being in good emotional condition is more important than a good physical condition, maybe because the physical body can heal faster when there’s gentleness, warmth and laughter and room for miracles through that all-important sense of connection. The emotional energy field, though, is just one of the subtle bodies. You can clear grief from your mental energy field, toxic metals and environmental pollutants from your home, raise the energetic frequency of your drinking water, of which 70% of your body is made. Or keep it simple and clear any risk of illness to you and yours. All you need is intention. Just tip away, paying attention to a different thing each time. My favourite positive spiritual spin is that a headache is a sign of a new neural pathway forming and god only knows what important powerful information it may bring eventually!

Picking Your Guidance System

7) What you heal for yourself, you heal for all. Your successes are my successes. The reason why building a strong spiritual life is so significant is that the outer world is very chaotic and cruel. Each being that learns how to come to terms with themselves and maintain (or at least find their way back to) coherence or peacefulness is building the foundation of a sustainable future, for everyone. A life that makes sense will be reflected by a world that makes sense …but don’t hold your breath for this outcome as I’ve been working on it for years and I’ve had amazing results but no irrefutable proofs. Personally, I think we should wean ourselves off needing proof and mature into just knowing. And while we’re at it, wean ourselves off dependence on external expertise and get centred in our own truth…much more reliable in times of uncertainty like these. My guideline is to harm no one and nothing. That clears up any indecision for me and provides obvious means to weigh up my actions. For others, they consider the statement “I am love, lover and beloved’ to make sure that love motivates their actions (as opposed to reactionary motivations like fear, anger, expectations, guilt and so on).

Powerful Participation in The Wider Reality

8) Finally, this distinction between reaction and response come to the fore. When a person has assimilated some spiritual concepts into their everyday perceptions of what’s going on, they will see that they are not victims of an illness or a society or anything. We are powerful, active agents in our own lives and others’, every step of the way. So, first things first, let’s all ask to clear anything in us, individually, that is perpetuating the vast reach of Covid 19. Let’s all ask what is the gift in being alive at this time of extraordinary change. Let’s all think of one thing, at least, that this crumbing of economies might lead to; the particular systemic change you always hoped for but thought you’d never live to see the day it came about. I have already thought of mine and written to the government and more recently to Europe about it, on the basis that it would be a pity not to harvest our ideas and plant the seeds in the wider consciousness and possibly in the minds of the very people who can legislate accordingly. The spirituality we all loosely know of is prayer. Let’s send a quick prayer (or spare a thought, if you’re more comfortable with that terminology) for the people who have died so far. Acknowledging their souls and the lives they had is enough for them to get safely to the light and leave behind the physical body. Our bodies are only our vehicle, the spirit goes on. However, like every good set of wheels, let’s make it sporty, comfortable, smooth running, fun to drive off-road and fuelled with the desire for adventure and to see more: See everything you can in fact, from every vantage point and experience everything too, 1st hand, rather than 3rd hand, via algorithms and wifi frequencies. Give yourselves a meditation and roll in the hay any day and instead of the cloud, look at the sky.

Department of Ag & Meat Not Above The Law

I sent this to Minister Creed, the Animal Welfare Desk and the gang at the Department of Agriculture...as well as the Green Party and anyone who shares animal welfare objectives. Please cut and paste or write something to get the meat industry on shut down too...if only for three months. Trucks of Irish animals at European borders in traffic jams of over 40km in length are not, surely, within regulations and in a lock down situation are not helping.

"Dear Agriculture Department,

I have also sent this to the Green Party, of which I am a member (They explicitly want an end to live export and an end to intensive large farms and a return to small, high welfare operations), the Animal Welfare Desk and the new Animals First political party.

I read about the government's 'Order to close all unnecessary businesses'! Hallelujah. Factories are going to have to close….at last. How many years have I sworn I will live to see the end of the unnecessary killing of animals? Senseless, inexorable murder, short lives of confinement, prodded into trucks, forced to walk in terror to their torture machine, no anaesthetic or sedation first (thanks in part to a shortage of gas for pigs and adhering to horrific Halal for cows), total awareness of what is happening, blood everywhere; living, dead and semi-conscious animals of your own species, even herd, everywhere? Not one Irish man on the line, only Eastern Europeans and others without enough English to get a better job. These guys are already suicidal, their souls gone (Two suicides in QK Meats' Coldstore). Completely past caring. Drenched in violence and entrails. Can we send them home for their self isolation too? Surely they’ve earned it.

So I’ve been begging the powers that be for 24 years. Many have been campaigning since the 60s. There are millions of vegetarians and vegans now, in the last ten years recognizing that we don’t need to kill animals for food, so we shouldn’t. We don’t need to take the milk from cows, so we shouldn’t. This reasoning, which has always been so obvious to some, is now suddenly getting its chance to be legislated for. Today we heard the order to stop all unnecessary business.  You’re going to have to CLOSE ALL SLAUGHTER HOUSES AND STOP LIVE EXPORT.  It doesn’t matter if it’s for 3 months only. It’s a pause, a hiatus. The DAFM, who texted me today because I'm a farmer, informed me that they’re closed for business for the foreseeable future. You are certainly not sending your vets in to do their usual inspections for food safety or welfare so that means, it should be stopped altogether. Only if you confirm that the full complement of DAFM vets are at sea ports and in factories should they be allowed to stay open. We want proof. But actually, we don't want proof that business as usual is allowed, we want closure.

What will the farmers do? Dry their milking cows off and rough off the animals still in sheds with less and less hard food and more and more turnout. Then let them off in the fields, to sustain themselves, while minding their water, until this crisis is over. Then we can think again. 

The government can decide how much support the farmers get. The meat industry does not need handouts. It can rest easy on its profits and your department can insist they continue to pay their staff while they’re not working. (I refer to when Dawn Fresh (part of the Queally Group) was closed due to food safety non compliance and they laid off all their staff with immediate effect, with no pay or notice. It is not the government who should pay for everything with tax payer’s money. They can push for insurance companies as well to honour a ‘loss of business’ or an ‘acts of God’ phrase or whatever they need.

Please don't give us some old chat about slaughter being necessary for food. You know that farms, factories and trucks should be grounded like everyone else to flatten the curve of the virus spread. Like everything else, meat and dairy products can be rationed. Do not play into the hands of the already unscrupulous meat industry who are only too delighted to knock out lower and lower standard sausages (for example), as there is such a rush on. The Kerry Group in Shillelagh, Carlow have already had cases of Covid 19 but haven't closed, just moved staff around. Perhaps your rule of thumb should be, if they reported that case then they are attempting to be responsible about not spreading the virus and if they didn't they are definitely trying to cover it up and stay open and profiting, regardless of risk to staff and customers? 

We have to slow down how much meat we eat anyway for the environment. We have to stop the import of cheap meat, in order to make sure Irish farmers' products are the only ones on our market. You have to bring the meat industry to task. This is our chance.  

I am so grateful for this chance to stop the killing of animals and birds, for the first time in living memory. Even if it's just for a time. People might start to see sense and see the reality of this barbaric modern day industry, so far removed from it's small-holding, non-gmo-fed, free range, pasture fed, past.

If you want to hear how a few Irish farmers are doing it, here is a Limerick farmer on how he helped his land recover, stopped feeding grain and dried off his cows for under a fiver.

Please don't miss this opportunity: Close all slaughterhouses and Stop All Live Export." 

...Many thanks and all that from me and millions of animals.

Tom Stack, Limerick farmer, talks about his conversion to Natural Farming

Dammit, weren't we just about to save the environment?

I’ve suddenly copped on. It was only a month ago wasn't it just before the election, how we all talked of how the supermarkets and meat and dairy industry have too much power and to save the planet, we need more and preferably only small food producers, to buy local and to support the environmentally friendly and cruelty free efforts in every purchase...Now we only have supermarkets, meat and dairy industry and big pharma.

Three things occurred to me. As we create what’s in our subconscious mind more powerfully than what we are conscious of, I checked what unhelpful things were there. There were '19' in our collective subconscious that had to be brought to consciousness. I've done that you'll be glad to hear.

How much of the Rainforest – known as the lungs of the planet - have greedy bastards destroyed? 19%.

How much fresh water is left? 19%

Are all these 19s coincidental with Covid 19?

Then over the weekend, I discover that the horse races, the live export, the trade in milk and meat and pharmaceuticals are going ahead like mad.

It’s only us plebs to stay at home, completely dependent on the internet for work, for information, communication, for entertainment, for distraction, for truth, for organizing our finances, for ordering our food…unless we go to the supermarket.

The supermarket is probably no more dangerous than it was a year ago. Every product is full of pesticies and chemical sprays that may or may not be carcinogenic but are definitely full of nano technology (supposedly to gather soil data, but do you believe they don't continue to gather data when they're in our bodies?).

We had already suspected that it was those toxins and micro technologies, accumulated, that were the reason why older people were being triggered into the hideous second stage of the illness-younger people seem impervious.

But today I asked the straight question, is the virus being passed via the internet and I got a yes.

Was my timely watching of Coward of the County, Kenny Rogers (RIP) film a problem? Any better than my hilarious comedy about the property developer and the gypsy? My reading up on the virus? The animals rights issues? Were they all equal? Does the content of what we're viewing matter at all? I got a no! It doesn't matter how serious or silly.

I asked, does it mater if it’s 3G,4G or 5G? No. Wireless or wired? No, Just the world wide web is the issue/the killer and specifically our engagement with it. So, even if someone else in your house is watching something, your conscious disengagement protects you. So at least turn phones off for part of every hour and all of every night!

But we said so recently, we need to get back to small farms and fair prices and good organic and welfare practices. And now just a month later, all the small enterprises are completely devastated.

Some people are talking about how we're moving to a One World Government and that's not a pink fluffy clouds world, where we recognise how we're all intrinsically connected. It's a disaster run by people who neither want us or need us alive.

Private profit is soaring I'm sure, why was the horse racing not stopped today? No social distancing I bet going on there.

Why has live export not been stopped? There’s 40km of traffic jams, at Europe’s borders, full of trucks of dying Irish and other European animals. Can't farmers just let their animals out to the fields to maintain themselves and accept they're going to be around, come the summer, and think again then?

I’m sure we’re firing money at Big Pharma too to come up with a vaccine/cure for the virus. Last I heard, they’re testing it on animals first although it has been shown to not affect animals; they can’t catch it or carry it.

And, what of those pharmaceutical imports to Ireland from China? Worth more than 600 million annually. Couldn’t possibly be the soure of any virus cases even though they’re popping up in care homes without community engagement or whatever their jargon is? But it’s jobs for the boys and girls in laboratories and breeding facilities. This is our chance to stop all this stuff.

There’s a part of ourselves individually that reaches around the globe or can reach around the globe (In physics it's called action at a distance). We are closely related, in frequency, to the ionosphere.

For more information see www.healingbyfranc.com. Or even better, tune yourself in. If the ionosphere layer of the Earth's atmosphere is coherent then the virus nor anything else catastrophic to human life can traverse it. That's what Tesla thought anyway.

But for us to resonate at this frequency and get ourselves well and get the world shielded, from this toxic One World State of big players and cruelty, we have to get off the net.

Get a clear head. And don’t think that the supermarkets aren’t enjoying this. I read on the 'help for small businesses' page that we conduct 97% of the business in Ireland or something like that ....and now we can't do any. That's a big market opening up for complete domination isn't it.

Only the big guys are winning and we need to take the power back. The very mild super power we have is consciousness. Don’t get sucked in to seriousness, distraction or even trying to market what you do on line. Take time out and make your plans in real time and space, in your own front room.

You can get two weeks emergency money, from welfare if you're stuck and it can be done by post, so you don't have to venture into INTREO. If you do, wear gloves and mask and goggles, if not full forensic suit. It still might be worth being registered with them on Welfare.ie, in cases you’re going to be hounded for rent or other bills. Things are changing and it is bandit country. Remember that this is suiting some people very well indeed as we panic buy any old shite with a long shelf life. We are well divided and conquered, except our hearts. Keep that connection going. It's the only one that will make a difference.

Self-Isolation Made Easy

If you think you should self-isolate, do not forget what you know. Raw onion, garlic, ginger, lemon, apple cider vinegar, coconut oil, aloe vera, vitamin c, raw fruit and veg, fermented foods, all have massive anti-viral properties. Make yourself eat very tiny pieces or sip tiny amounts with maple syrup or just water. Lots of water…but not straight from the tap. Just sit it on your side table overnight on a slip of paper that says ‘thank you for my healing’ or something positive and shorter. Or on a picture of something beautiful and thriving cut out from a magazine.
And don’t forget tea tree oil or vicks or anything menthol or any essential oil probably and put a little in a pan of boiling water. Towel over the head and inhaling the vapours will really open the bronchiole and ease your breathing.

And if you’ve got no symptoms and aren’t ill at all, don’t let fear constrict your chest prematurely. Watch comedies and rom coms and play music and keep a journal of your thoughts and ideas and feelings. If you want to get practical, save the seeds from your peppers and tomatoes and the potatoes that are growing shoots and plant them out in the garden or in a pot. Or look up on line a complete list of anti-viral and immunity building items and see what you have to play with! Something to look forward to and a sense of purpose to is always the key to success. I heard rumours of recipes for colloidal silver being totally doable and effective. I heard that if you can get your hands on MMS it’s a powerful antedote. Turn off your phones, TV, lights and wifi when you’re going to sleep.
We come from a society that doesn’t like to be alone and let’s face it nothing is more miserable than feeling ill and like it’s the end of the world and no one looking after you and bringing you freshly heated hot water bottles and toast or even supposed to open the door to see if you’re still in the land of the living. I know you can’t go to the doctor either and you wouldn’t want to, with all those sick people gathered in the one place, but feel free to message me if you want a distance healing. My very mild super powers will no doubt come into full affect now, so that’s an open invitation.

Don’t wait for the national guidelines to change, we can look after ourselves and we might not be being told the whole truth. The poor doctor in Clare who raced around doing his duties and his child have been proof enough of a couple of things. It is not just contact related, it’s airborne so do use a mask if you have one. Secondly, I think tragically, it’s the child who has symptoms and not the adults so children are at risk too.

All the best and keep calm and try and stay kind, even though I totally understand that everyone whether they’re handing you a tenner or using the petrol pump before you is being looked at with suspicion right now.

My note to self, is think about your little habits that need to change. Talking of the garage, I used to always grab a bag of crisps and now I wouldn’t eat in the car if you paid me. I get the whole way home, wash my hands, get a bowl out and empty the crisps into it. Wash my hands again and eat them. Could this nerve-wracking situation actually be the road to a more civilized and slowing down society?! All the best and lots of love everyone, on this World Women Day, among which number I am glad to call myself a part!

I can't remember who I took this nice picture from but it says it all suddenly. We can't look outside for help, we must dig deep xxx