Regarding Money

It’s fun to stand in the market place of a community far away from your own country and have a translator explain to you the daily conversations between the locals. As an economist, my life is richer for having taken the time to practice the art of intentional listening. I pass on to you, for your consideration, one such bit of local wisdom: 

“If you want to teach your children about money

 . . . it’s better if you don’t have any.”

One fact is agreed upon universally: There are more wants than there is available money. Ultimately, we have to choose where we spend our money. That seems to be the hitch. Cultures characteristically try to teach their offspring something about those choices and that very tradition reveals a lot about the teacher as well as the student. In 1758, philosopher David Hume said: 

“Money is not, properly speaking, one of the subjects of commerce, but only the instrument which men have agreed upon to facilitate the exchange of one commodity for another. It is the oil which renders the motions of the wheels more smooth and easy.”

You only work in order to trade your labor supply for the supply of some other worker. Money, the common currency, is relied upon simply as a convenience and accepted because of confidence. Money is sort of an interim landing spot. You may want to exchange your labor for some currency in order to postpone a current consumption in anticipation of consuming something in the future. It is more convenient to carry around some currency in your pocket than to try to carry in your pocket a month of your labor! Credit cards are an additional convenience, but not truly money in that they have to be paid off with yet another transaction of money. However, when you stop having confidence in any form of money it ceases to be used as money. 

There has nearly always been some type of money in existence, but no one person simply sat down and invented money. And as history reveals, some folks, inside or outside the ruling government, sooner or later start tinkering with the control of the value of the currency for their own express benefit. 

So, if it is so important for a culture to pass on to its offspring the wisest and most prudent practices for handling money, why would someone in the marketplace say: “If you want to teach your children about money . . . it’s better if you don’t have any?”Here are some of my observations to add to your own ideas.

  • The convenience of money is an addiction and tends to sever the rational connection between the product of your labor and the money itself. Money becomes the issue, not labor. Mom and Dad look to the money as the object and usually one person takes on the role of a human ATM machine. If something is desired, money is used to fulfill the need or impulse, even if the interim convenience step of the credit card is needed. But the link between the fruits of labor and the ATM machine becomes lost, especially for the next generation.
  • Convenience for the present generation transforms into entitlement for the next generation. When the connection between the product of your labor and the human ATM machine becomes blurred, the kids are tacitly taught they are entitled to whatever is viewed as necessary.
  • Generally speaking, money and credit cards become so convenient that if they are available, the money will be spent.
  • Frugality demands discipline. If there is money readily available it is almost impossible to effectively teach frugality. The effort just isn’t convenient.
  • When caught up in “ATM thinking,” it is very difficult to teach that over time the value of the money being used almost always shrinks. So, expediency of the present trumps a well planned system for savings and investment for the future. The kids end up without the foggiest idea about savings and investments. “Somebody will always supply an ATM machine.”

Sadly, most lessons about money are caught rather than taught. The next generation, unless there is some form of intervention and transformation, will usually follow an increased trend of expediency and convenience rather than frugality and discipline. It takes real focus and discipline to teach the next generation about issues of money. The good news . . . it can be done!

Connect the Dots

The way to connect the two big dots called “Goals” and

 “Achievements” is by a straight line called “Discipline.” 

~Dr. James W. Jackson

The Mission Statement of Project C.U.R.E. is to identify, collect, sort, and distribute donated medical supplies, equipment and services, based on imperative need. That is the objective. That is the big dot labeled Goal. But how do you connect that big dot to the other big dot labeled Achievement?

When noodling the mental model of Project C.U.R.E. in 1986, it all seemed very simple. I saw overwhelming need for medical supplies and pieces of medical equipment everywhere. Good people were dying for lack of the simplest and most basic medical items. Surgeries were not being performed for lack of sterile latex gloves in the operating rooms. Dehydrated children were dying for lack of IV starting kits. Strep and staph infections attacked otherwise healthy people when they went to a hospital because of the unsanitary conditions. The need was gigantic! 

On this side of the ocean, medical warehouses and hospitals were full of overstocked medical goods. To my simplistic mind, it seemed like a pretty straightforward assignment: take the things not being utilized here and transfer them to people desperately in need of the goods over there. Then everyone concerned would bebetter off. 

It all seemed so simple, even when diagramed out on a piece of paper. But, connecting those two dots of Goals and Achievements was not, and still is not, simple. I used to wonder why someone had not made it work before. Now I know. It costs millions of dollars to freely give away the miracle of life and hope. I began to understand the liability factors faced by the medical manufacturers once their products left their control. 

Hard costs involved in collecting and warehousing the donated goods seemed prohibitive. Sorting, inventorying, and preparing the medical goods for shipment demanded computers, telephones, trucks, forklifts, pallet jacks, boxes, and shipping supplies. Insurance policies had to be purchased to cover people, loads, equipment, and buildings. Fuel and maintenance costs had to be met for the trucks and pieces of equipment, as well as payments for necessary utilities. Those expenses multiplied when we began to open up operations in other cities. 

An additional factor interfered with our connecting the dots of Goals and Achievements. It was the nightmarish task of shipping through corrupt customs departments found in foreign countries. And we were not just shipping into one port but, eventually, thousands of recipient facilities in one hundred twenty-eight countries. So, how do the dots get connected? Discipline is the key. 

As Project C.U.R.E. grew, and we were trying to connect the dots, at least four disciplines were involved: 

1. The discipline of believing: We had to believe so tenaciously that what we were doing was the right thing to do, that we could actually see by faith that the project could and would be done.

 

2. The discipline of focus: Without laser focus, chaos, confusion, and failure will result. Focus is remembering what you want so vividly that all your energies move you toward accomplishment.

 

3. The discipline of perseverance: Nothing can dissuade you. You will make one more phone call and absorb more “no” responses than anyone else has in history. But it will come to pass.  

4. The discipline of sharing the accomplishment: No great thing is achieved by oneself. You are not that smart, clever, good-looking or strong. We need God, loyal friends, team members, and collaboration to make a difference for good in this world. We must utilize discipline to share in that goodness with others around us.

The way to connect the two big dots called Goals and Achievements is by a straight line called Discipline. 

Stepping Stones

"Every act of kindness defines your character

and becomes a stepping stone toward heaven." 

-Dr. James W. Jackson

We become the sum total of every moment and every event of our lives on earth. Each episode forms our story and writes in time the adventure of our life. The enjoyable experiences, as well as the tough spots we encounter, set up the occasions that demand our responses. Our responses, then, set into motion the consequences of our intentions. And lo, and behold . . . we then have what we callcharacter. That character becomes our temporal as well as our eternal identity. But, character is built one episode at a time.

One of the great privileges afforded me as I traveled to nearly every corner of the world, was being able to quietly observe the countries, the cultures, and the character of the people. Though the mores and folkways were vastly varied, the core similarities of the people were astounding. Many times I was overwhelmed at the responses of the individuals to the opportunities of goodness presented to them.

While working in Lilongwe, Malawi, in eastern Africa, I encountered a delightful twenty-two year old man named Fletcher Mutandika. I listened carefully as he verbally un-wrapped his story for me:

One night an old, shriveled woman came gently, but insistently, knocking at the apartment door of the boarding school Fletcher was attending. She was holding an emaciated baby between her two hands. She began pleading for enough milk to help the baby stop crying. Fletcher looked at the starving baby and quizzed the old grandmother. He found that her daughter and husband both had HIV/ AIDS and had died recently. She could not care for yet another orphaned child. This was the grandmother's desperate attempt to keep the live baby from being buried with the dead mother. Fletcher was faced with a defining moment. How he would respond would set into motion far-reaching consequences.

Fletcher's own mother had been orphaned when she was just ten years old. As Fletcher was growing up his mother had told him of what it was like to grow up alone, with no family. But, God's love had eventually allowed Fletcher's mother to go to school and marry a young man, who later became a Presbyterian preacher in his native country of Malawi.

While Fletcher was standing in the doorway something happened inside of him. He not only came up with some milk for the baby, but he also took the starving baby to receive medical attention. Sadly, it was too late to save the child and she was buried with her mother three days later. Fletcher decided in his heart that from that point on he would get involved in trying to help with the orphan situation in Malawi.

A census had been taken about five years earlier showing there to be over a million orphans in Malawi alone. Old grandparents who should have been having someone look after them were still trying to take care of fifteen or twenty little kids. Many of the grandparents' children had died of HIV/ AIDS related illnesses, leaving all their living offspring to be raised by someone else. It was not uncommon for a child to be orphaned two or three times. Their parents would both die, and they would be taken in by an aunt or uncle, who would also subsequently die and would leave all the kids to go somewhere else. Nor was it uncommon for young children to be heads of households trying to raise their brothers, sisters, and cousins after the death of their parents. But with no adults around, who would teach the children how to cook, plant, tend the goats, or even fetch water?

By age twenty-five, Fletcher was operating his own Day Care Center for orphaned kids in Lilongwe, Malawi. He was caring for 750 orphans in his program. But his care concept had an interesting twist to it. He didn't want to break up the extended family if it could be prevented. Instead, he wanted to make it possible for the families to retain some of their original identity. He would not take the kids on a full-time basis, but gave them a place to go before school and after school, and even helped finance the purchasing of school uniforms, and helped pay the fees for the orphans. After school the kids would flock to Fletcher's pavilion where all would receive a good, hot meal. Then, he sent them off to a relative's hut to sleep for the night.

Every act of kindness bestowed on those 750 orphans continued to define Fletcher's character. Every episode was forming the story of his life. Even to this day, Fletcher continues to build stepping stones to heaven not only for himself, but for countless others in the country of Malawi.

(This story is an excerpt from Dr. Jackson's Field Journals soon to be available on a subscription-only basis.)

Giving From an Empty Bucket

Before giving away something from your bucket, make sure there is something in your bucket. 

Compassion in a culture is an extremely valuable commodity. In many cases it is priceless. Compassionate people who are involved in humanitarian endeavors are usually pretty tough on the outside, and can function well in undesirable circumstances. But, many times on the inside they are way over on the thin side of the bell curve when it comes to fragility and vulnerability. Sometimes their hearts are even bigger than their heads. 

Lately, I have been made aware of the tragedy that occurs when compassionate people continue to give and give out of their buckets to meet the needs of others around them, but neglect to take care of their own physical, spiritual, and emotional well being. They keep reaching into their buckets and dispensing to others what is needed to help and heal. Then one day they reach into the bucket fully expecting to perform their compassionate actions as usual. As they reach deep into the bucket they discover that it is empty. The only sound from the bucket is the sound of their knuckles coarsely rubbing on the metal of the bottom of their own bucket. Then the trauma and tragedy of the situation becomes observable. 

 

If we do not have a plan of action for refilling and maintaining our own bucket of physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being, we are already in trouble. You just can’t give out of an empty bucket. When that happens our entire culture suffers the loss. 

 

While traveling throughout the world delivering health and hope through Project C.U.R.E., I would be in as many as twenty-seven countries in one year. I would see more filth and cockroach-infested hospitals, and experience more pain and misery and death and dying in thirty days than most people would see in a lifetime. A thousand times my heart would be broken. Many times in my hospital tours I would have to hide around a corner just to cry. I had to judiciously guard against an empty bucket. 

 

I realize this is personal, but I’m going to share with you from my own action plan just one of the things that helped me keep my bucket full. It became God, my family, my wife and my home that served to protect my bucket. The following is an unedited entry from my travel journal for November 4, 1998: 

I breathed in deeply until my lungs were filled to absolute capacity. I slowly exhaled and then filled my lungs again with the crisp Colorado mountain air. Someone in the glacier-torn canyon was burning logs in their fireplace and the slight scent of wood smoke mixed with the rain drenched smell of pine needles quietly, but emphatically, announced to my senses that I was home. I was home, safe within the locked iron gates that blocked the rest of the crazy world from trespassing across the bridge into the sanctuary we had called home for over 29 years.  
I listened with new ears to the creek in front of the house as the water noisily splashed over rocks deposited there thousands of years earlier. I gazed again in wonder at the majesty of the stately blue spruce, ponderosa pines and Douglas fir trees pointing their spires up and out from my yard into the misty heavens. I was home. Home was where, inside the old stone and log walls of the house, we had raised our sons and enjoyed the warmth and thrills of nearly a third of a century of Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Home was where I kept returning at every opportunity possible to rejoin the embrace of my childhood sweetheart and very best friend, Anna Marie . . . the girl who had turned my head and heart in high school, and through the ensuing years had totally captivated my respect, passion, and admiration. I had realized that if I could spend time with any girl in the world, I would certainly run home as fast as possible and spend that time with Anna Marie. I was home.  
At that moment I experienced absolutely no fear at all about some airport predator in Lagos, Nigeria, about whom the security people would warn me, “Don’t deal or even talk to any people at this airport . . . you have what they all want and they will kill you to get it.” No fear within my sanctuary about drinking parasite infested water that would make me deathly ill, or about inadvertently eating food contaminated with the hepatitis virus. No fear there of being involved in an automobile or airplane accident in some remote third world country, or contacting some strange and incurable disease, or getting robbed as I walked along some strange street in some desperate neighborhood halfway around the world. I breathed in deeply once again and refilled my lungs to capacity with the crisp autumn air of my Colorado haven. I was home.  
I didn’t used to realize how important it was to be grounded somewhere specifically when I would spend a large percentage of my life spinning and flying at the end of an unpredictable tether. But, now I was observing what was taking place in my life. I was keenly realizing that when God had directed and expected me to go and function in a very insecure environment, he had already overly compensated me with objects and situations of immeasurable security in order to keep me adequately stabilized on my journey. Not just a few times had I laid in some unfamiliar bed in a foreign country and had my mind return to my home. At that point I had been allowed to regain peace of mind and heart as I mentally walked along the babbling creek and listened to the singing of the rare songbirds of the Rocky Mountains. Many had been the times when I would fall asleep feeling the warm comforting arms of Anna Marie wrapped around me, giving me the security and confidence of her love, even though we were miles apart. God had prepared for me to go long before I was ever expected to go. And upon my return home from the latest thirty-day trip throughout Africa, I was reminded once again of God’s extremely generous expression of faithfulness and provision in my life. I was home.  
(Dr. JWJ’s Travel Journal; November 4, 1998) 

Before giving away something from your bucket, make sure there is something in your bucket. 

Counter Trade and Barter

I want to post this important concept in your subconscious mailbox now so that it gets stored in the inbox of your brain before the hectic days of the coming election and 2013. In the meantime, over your hot cup of coffee or while you are commuting to work, consider this for a moment. Almost overnight we have injected over thirteen trillion “dollars” of new money into our present system. The U.S. Treasury prints paper money and mints coins, but the Federal Reserve System alone is authorized to place them into circulation. All the newly created money will be “monetized” into the system. The most dramatic method for altering the money supply is through the monetizing of the Government’s deficit spending by the Federal Reserve System’s buying and selling notes and securities of the U.S. Treasury. [Another way to say it is that the government spends and spends on credit, and the FED prints up new paper money to cover all the debt.] The method somewhat delays the damaging impact of inflation, but can’t stop it. 

But, I don’t want to fill this space with a discussion about inflation. I have, however, observed in my work around the world over the past thirty years scores of countries that radically abused their currency systems. Perhaps chief among those experiences was my working directly with President Jose Sarney of Brazil, when the inflation rate in that country was running over three thousand percent. 

Instead, I want to talk here about coping. I want to talk about considering ideas and a mindset now that can sustain you in tough financial times, and foster confidence and peace of mind. No, I have nothing to sell, but I will offer some ideas that are free. 

Utilizing counter trade and barter is simply trading what’cha have for what’cha want. You have been doing it since you were born and already you are good at it. You used it exclusively until you got addicted to using a money system that you presumed was more convenient. When you were a baby you had it figured out that two whimpers, four cries and two screams would get you one clean diaper. You were bartering peace and quiet for your basic needs! Later, you learned that you could barter good behavior for acceptance, approval, and commendation. You became a pro. You took what you had and made it into what you needed. 

Historically, during times of economic depression, inflation, or abusive taxation, the barter system has always revived, outweighing the convenience of the regular money system. The more worthless money becomes, the more likely it is that commodities will become “money.” What’s new is that we are once again entering an economic period where bartering will be necessary because of the abuse and manipulation of the money system. 

Once you begin kicking the money habit and start thinking in terms of value instead of price tags, you will discover that you can trade for about anything. My point is very simple: If you can barter for things that you would regularly pay cash for during the month, then you will not have spent the cash that you regularly would have spent.Unspent cash left over at the end of the month is the equivalent of a raise . . . and that is even better than having to earn more money! 

It is not unreasonable to believe that you could trade for dry cleaning and laundry, a car or truck lease, tires, batteries, car pooling, fresh produce, dairy products, butchered beef, frozen foods, clothing for you and the kids, baby-sitting, landscaping, painting, house repairs, school uniforms, sports equipment, dance lessons, guitar lessons, piano lessons, etc. In other words all that you otherwise would have paid for during the month with cash, or worse, a credit card. If you have what the other person needs, and he has what you need, then the deal can be made and each ends up better off. Usually, it is a case where “ye barter not because ye attempt not.” You are probably already doing something like shoveling the neighbor’s sidewalks in exchange for baby-sitting. 

There are three basic steps to take that will get you started: 1) make a comprehensive list of what you want or need; 2) make another creative list of what you have available for trade; 3) Discover someone with whom to trade — from grocery store bulletin boards, internet “want ad” lists, church groups, school groups, swap meets, etc. You don’t even need to discuss “price.” Just stick with your idea of value and what works for each party. You will really be disadvantaged in the future if you remain addicted to a manipulated currency system. 

This short discussion has dealt with only counter trade and barter as it relates to personal needs. But, there is a whole exciting world out there that includes business, real estate, commodities and services. Additionally, international counter trade and barter deals are fully utilized every day of the year. It is estimated that between forty and fifty percent of all East-West trade utilizes counter trade and barter. As countries become choked by debt and experience international “credit unworthiness,” (such as we are currently experiencing) it is to their benefit to become experts in counter trade and barter. 

Over the past thirty years I have spent my life in over one-hundred fifty countries where I witnessed some significant trade deals. For example, Mexico sent oil and sulfur to Brazil in exchange for petrochemicals, soybeans, steel mill and oil-industry equipment in transactions valued in billions of dollars. I was personally involved in “debt for equity swaps” with sovereign countries when I founded Project C.U.R.E.The principles are all the same. And I am so grateful that one day it dawned on me that those principles could be utilized for more transactions than just making a fortune. I found that we could take commodities of the health care industry and actually exchange them for the health and lives of thousands and thousands of beautiful people all over this world. That’s the power of counter trade and barter.

The Arrow of Fear in the Quiver of Control

I’m sick and tired of being made afraid. 

When it comes to the issue of controlling the hearts and minds of the people, there are several lethal arrows in the quiver of control that have been effectively used throughout history. None is more lethal and none used more often than the arrow offear. In fact, it is the one essential arrow for the politician’s success. If you can get into the head and heart of the constituent, and establish the spirit of fear, you have at the same instant established the spirit of dependency. Abdication welcomes control . . . all in the name of protection and peace of mind. 

While traveling in Zimbabwe, I experienced the many times President Mugabe dispatched his military and police units to race through the city streets in the middle of the night with sirens blaring, lights flashing, and horns honking to strike fear in the hearts of the sleepy citizens. The frightened citizens would awaken thinking, “Oh, it’s awful, and scary, and dangerous out there, and I do hope that our president will take care of us.” 

Hitler’s confidant, Herman Goering, claimed, “Naturally, the common people don’t want war neither in Russia nor England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” 

I recall from the 1950s and 1960s my very first awareness of a leader’s control by fear. Newsreels showed President Abdel Nasser of Egypt sounding all the alarms in Cairo, rousing all the people out of their beds and into the streets for defense drills, saying the British and French were coming to kill them because he had taken control of the Suez Canal. The next night he would order the people out of bed and into their defense positions because President Qasim of Iraq, or the troops from Saudi Arabia or North Yemen were on their way to kill them. Nasser kept the people of Egypt in a continual state of fear and confusion. And they loved him and supported him for it because he was the only one who could take care of them. Ironically, to quell them and gain their confidence, he promised them universal health care, subsidized housing, building of vocational schools, and minimum wages. Nasser came closer to unifying the Arab world than anyone in recent history, and fear was his sharpest arrow. 

In any one given day media reports can swamp you with fears of individual loss of net worth through increased taxation, coming hyper-inflation, loss of freedom on the internet, nuclear bombs from Iran or North Korea, government’s inability to pay social security, military pensions or Medicare, death panels for those over seventy-five, epidemics, natural and man-made disasters, bank failures, further loss of liberties, loss of electrical and communication grid systems, failure of our money system, foreign intrusion or radical domestic upheavals, increase in killer diseases, and on and on . . . . Most fears are based on some percentage of truth, so at best, we deal with half truths. The problem with our species is that we usually glom onto the wrong half. And once we begin to let fears terrify us, the quality of our personal life diminishes. Seneca said, “Where fear is, happiness is not.” If we allow our minds to become focused on fears — created by whomever — those fears will choose our destiny, because fear is the enemy of logic and effectively robs the mind of all its powers of reasoning and acting. 

So, what’s to be done? If it is a legitimate concern and you can do something about it, then do it. If you need to vote, then vote. If you need to protest, then protest. But, don’t let the fear possess you. Let go of the fear. You need not be made afraid any more. Dale Carnegie used to say, “Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” 

From what I observe, there seems to be a positive correlation between the amount of fear that possesses me and how unusually concerned I am about myself. I find that I am less apt to be made afraid if I can get my thoughts off myself and I start concentrating on helping someone else become better off. That just may be one reason why our fifteen thousand volunteers at Project C.U.R.E. are such a happy lot. They have discovered that as you focus your attention on helping other people become better off, even if they are on the other side of the world, the super-imposed fears that were once yours seem to lose their grip and start slipping in their influence over you. 

I don’t want to be made afraid anymore! Fear is the darkroom where negatives are developed, and I no longer need to be a part of that picture! 

Speechless

You don’t always have to communicate by talking if you are transparent enough to let people see the love that is in your heart. 


One of the most proud and impressive episodes that occurred in Project C.U.R.E.’s history of helping needy hospitals around the world took place in the country of Ukraine. I began traveling to Ukraine shortly after the collapse of the old Soviet Union. By 1996, Project C.U.R.E. was not only helping to change the health care system in Kiev and smaller cities, like Zitomer, but also, in the university city of Vinnitsa. In addition to donating hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of medical goods into the Pirogov Medical University in Vinnitsa, we had also donated and shipped over eighteen tons of medical library books to the university’s library. With that gift they could boast of having the finest English language medical library in all Eastern Europe. 

I returned to the old Soviet Union and to Ukraine in September, 1996, with Dr. Mark Johnson and several other wonderful people from Vanderbilt University. It was Dr. Johnson’s first venture away from the sophisticated hospitals of Nashville, Tennessee and the Vanderbilt Medical Community. He was young, but had already gained a great deal of respect in the medical community as an urologist. In addition to the donated medical goods brought to Vinnitsa by Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Johnson spent his own money to purchase urological items that he intended to leave at the university when he returned to the U.S. 

Dr. Johnson's mission was to find and train the medical university’s finest urology and obstetrics/gynecology surgeons and professors. He would instruct them in the use of the advanced techniques, and then leave the high‑tech instruments for them. They would be the first in the whole area of the old Soviet Union to be trained in how to use the equipment and perform the procedures. 

The targeted university doctors and a few nurses were approached and invited to a meeting at 10:30 the next morning in a consultation room near the operating theaters. A Ukrainian translator agreed to be there to interpret for us. At 10:30 we had all gathered in the room . . . everyone that is except the translator. We quickly burned up the few known Russian and English words of greeting as we introduced ourselves to each other. But, still there was no translator. All were glancing at their watches. These were very busy people. 

Then Dr. Johnson did a brilliant thing. He said nothing, but smiled and took the laparoscope and the cystoscope out of their storage cases, along with some containers of capsules, and carefully placed them on the conference table. Next, he took out a black felt pen and some paper and started drawing pictures. The doctors and nurses looked around at each other and smiled at this creative young doctor who wanted to share with them so much that he was not going to let a little thing like a spoken language get in the way of their communicating. The doctors and nurses closed in tightly around Dr. Johnson so they could better see what he was drawing. Now, they were talking the same language, body language. 

In the old Soviet Union they were experiencing a lot of problems with gynecological oncology, urinary incontinence, cysts, uterus bleeding, bladder and kidney infections, and also, dysfunctional prostates in males. Up to that time, the only surgical method available was highly invasive surgery. And in Ukraine those procedures were fairly archaic and crude. 

As Dr. Johnson proceeded with his art class the physicians began to chatter. Some could not keep their hands off the scopes that were on the table. With the scopes and some pictures, Dr. Johnson began to demonstrate the new concept of minimally invasive diagnostics and surgery. Some of the surgeons had either read a little about the procedures or had seen pictures in medical journals. But this was the first time they had someone explain to them the use of the instruments . . . especially with the unique method of not employing words. They knew well their own problems and recognized quickly the advantages of decreased blood loss, decreased pain, less chance of infection from the surgery, and shorter stays in the hospital. 

Dr. Johnson ended up spending most of the day with the university doctors. As you can imagine, by that time they had translators galore! Their delight could hardly be contained when they realized that the new equipment would be left with them for the future. They begged Dr. Johnson to join them in the operating theater the next morning, where they would have him operate on their patients and allow them to further experience the use of the scopes. They even invited him to dinner that evening to celebrate their new friendship. 

The next morning we all put on our scrubs and went into the operating theater. Dr. Johnson’s new friends placed on his head the typical tall, Russian stovepipe surgical hat indicating their love and respect for him. Most visitors to their university hospital, who experienced the situation where the translator failed to show up, would have just packed up and headed back to the hotel. But Dr. Johnson’s care and concern for them compelled him to set aside the necessity of communicating with words. He became transparent enough to allow the doctors and nurses to see into his heart and respect him for his willingness to bypass the need to use words. 

I wonder, how many times in the past my communications would have been far more effective had I just stopped the flow of words, proceeded with my task, and been transparent enough to let others see the intent of my heart? 

Cultural Economics

Global transformation, national transformation, corporate transformation, and even personal transformation take place at the intersection of Culture and Economics.
(Dr. James W. Jackson,  "THE HAPPIEST MAN IN THE WORLD: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist”)

I am a Cultural Economist, and I am compelled to make this obvious announcement: People have something to do with economics!There is a temptation to view the study of economics as a complicated and intimidating hodgepodge of charts and graphs used by corporations and governments to manipulate the consumers and persuade the voters. However, the study of economics is a valuable interdisciplinary study, and it is sad to see that so many educational institutions have dropped the teaching of the subject to our students. 

Traditional economics concerns itself with the process of how we efficiently allocate and manage our resources of land, labor, capital, and the entrepreneur, and how we choose to organize the production of goods and services. We take our collected data and apply it to chosen charts or matrices so that we can project our conclusions into the future on the basic assumption that future reality will be an extension of past reality. It is easy to visualize the iconic economist with his wire-rimmed glasses observing something taking place in the real world . . . then retreating to his study to research if that which he has observed could actually work in theory. 

But, it is good for us to remember that economics is all about people. It is the people with their emotions of love, joy, surprise, anger, sadness, and fear who make up cultures. And it is cultures that affect economics. And, likewise, economics affects cultures. Wherever you find the clashing of culture and economics, you will find the process of transformation taking place. For example: 

Global: Observe what is happening in Greece. Rioting is taking place in the streets since May, 2010. The violent protests are over unemployment, inflation, corruption, the national debt crisis, and implementation of austerity measures. In Greece and elsewhere around the world Global Transformation is taking place at the intersection of culture and economics. 

National: A quick comparison of the issues represented within the U.S. by the Occupy Wall Street group and the Tea Party group will reveal the extent of the national transformation presently taking place. Occupy Wall Street is a protest movement employing civil disobedience to support their demands for wealth redistribution through “opposing cutbacks and austerity of any kind,” and eliminating corporate influence of the financial services sector over the government. The Tea Party opposes continued excessive spending and waste, U.S. national debt levels, excessive taxation, and it demands government adherence to the Constitution. 

Corporate and Individual: Change at the corporate, and the individual level as well, takes place at the intersection of culture and economics. Wherever the components of the culture, e.g., traditions, institutions, families, and individuals intersect with components of economics, e.g., resources, labor, capital, and the entrepreneur . . . that’s where change takes place. 

We all stand at the curbside of that intersection. Each of us participates in the flow of history as it passes through that intersection. At that intersection we actually become the “change agents” of history. 

Cultural Economics is the branch of economics that concerns itself with the relationship of culture to economic outcomes. It studies how various aspects of societal cultures interact with economic events, behaviors, and conditions. A given culture will influence our political systems, traditions, religious beliefs, our formation of institutions, and even our value ascribed to individuals. And, conversely, economic philosophies and systems have the power to affect and shape our cultures. 

Economics is not a “Dismal Science” as Thomas Carlyle referred to it in his essay written in 1849. It is an exciting adventure when the studies of economics and culture are combined. It can open our eyes to the understanding of motives, methods, behaviors, successes, and failures regarding the stewardship of our world’s resources and human endeavors. Perceptions and persuasions sway even our purchasing patterns. Our economic environment has the flexibility of metamorphosis in reaction to current events and preferences. That makes the study of Cultural Economics an exciting study.

Poverty

"It is a shameful day, indeed, when we discover that by our own, or our government's behavior, we have contributed to keeping people in the bondage of poverty."

Poverty is a tragically slippery word. It can be massaged and bent around to validate almost any point you would like to make, e.g. “If we would just stop practicing poverty we would not have any poor people,” or Martin Fisher’s ill-advised comment, “The great doctors all got their education off dirt pavements and poverty – not marble floors and foundations,” or H. Rapp

Brown’s famous quote, “You see, the poverty programs for the last 5 years have been buy-off programs.” 

The English word poverty came from the Anglo-Norman povert, and originally from the Latin pauper, meaning "poor." It does have something to do with the lack of certain possessions to meet basic human needs. Groups like United Nations and The World Bank try to delineate further with categories of Absolute Poverty and Relative Poverty and varying degrees of standards of living. Book shelves and web-site pages are packed full of theories and opinions as to the origins, descriptions, causes of perpetuation, results, and proposed cures for the phenomenon of poverty. 

This essay can’t tackle in 600 or fewer words the entire subjects of wealth and poverty. But I do want to take the space here to report what I have personally seen and experienced over the past thirty-five years since my first involvement in international travel and economic consulting. Specifically, I want to pass on the differences I have observed between the countries that experience relative wealth vs. the countries that experience relative poverty. I have traveled in more than 150 countries, and a large number of the countries I revisited many times. I have had the opportunity to become personal friends with Ministers of Finance, Ministers of Health, Presidents, Prime Ministers and Kings, and have had the privilege to speak at many of the Universities in the developing countries. The topic of economics is a hot subject and evokes instant questions and discussion wherever given a chance. 

It has become evident to me that the countries that pursue the following practices are wealthy or are becoming wealthy, while those countries that do not pursue these practices are poor or are becoming poor: 

  • Government is willing to allow the people to break the cycle of poverty. As Ronald Reagan once said, “Poverty is a career for lots of well-paid people.” The inevitable consequence of poverty is dependence. As in the case of subsistence farming, it is a great temptation to the leaders of developing countries to allow the people to remain poor and dependent. Ease of governance comes with poor people who spend all their energy and time on daily survival. They are not problematic to the government, but the country remains poor.
  • The people are given the right to hold and freely exchange private property. Private ownership of resources includes the rights of exclusive use and rights of transfer.
  • Individuals are free to agree, free to enter into voluntary agreements and contracts with each other. 
  • The Rule of Law is established and applied equally to all involved. Making agreements and contracts assumes there will be a third party objective resource to enforce the fulfillment of the contracts. Contracts are meaningless if they aren’t enforced.
  • Individuals are free to fail. Everyone in the transaction must be better off or the deal will fail. If the deal is successful, wealth is created. If the deal fails, the individuals must learn why it failed and discover what will make it successful.
  • An understanding that the pursuit of an individual’s best interest is not necessarily greed, i.e., pursuit of self-interest is different than selfishness.
  • Rejection of the zero sum mentality. When one person gets a piece of pie it is not at the expense of another person’s not getting a piece. Successful transactions create wealth. People create successful business transactions. Just because someone creates new wealth does not mean that someone else ends up with less. Wealth creation springs from people who are allowed to freely participate in business transactions.


In order to break the cycle of poverty in a developing country, income must be produced. Income can only be created when resources are used to produce goods and services needed by the people. Countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, and China, who now understand and encourage that concept, are increasing their wealth. Those countries that do not allow such practices, like Zimbabwe, Mauritania, and Cuba, remain in poverty.

Making Great Out of Little

"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little." (Edmond Burke)

Millie was a devoted nurse in the Emergency Room of one of Denver's finest hospitals. She had experienced the raw trauma and stress of fighting to pull helpless victims back from the brink of death. She had also been there to help comfort the anxious and frightened family members who helplessly waited for some indication of hope from the hospital emergency staff.  

Millie's husband, Dave, was a successful physical therapist. He also knew pain, and had spent his career helping hurting humans regain ease and comfort. Their occupations had been satisfying to them over the years because they knew they were helping other people become better off. But the closer they got to retirement age the more excited they got about the future. One day they would be finished with the success of their daily jobs and be free to pursue things they hoped would be of even greater significance. Their list of things to pursue grew longer by the day.

After they retired, Millie and Dave tried several standard post-retirement jobs. None worked out like they had expected. Then, their daughter-in-law suggested they visitProject C.U.R.E. She had volunteered there and understood that with all the international connections and exciting projects going on, surely that would be the place for significant adventure. Besides, it had everything to do with medical involvement, and that would be right down their alley.


Millie first ventured out to Project C.U.R.E. by herself. But the warehouse guy didn't show up for their appointment to show her around. The ethereal dream for significance began to float away with the clouds. But on the second try they connected, and Millie was introduced to Project C.U.R.E. Millie is a bright lady, and the moment she stepped foot inside the warehouse "she got it!" She saw the millions of dollars worth of donated medical goods on the racks ready to be sent out to the needy hospitals around the world. She knew that in the past the hospital where she had worked had discarded vast amounts of medical goods, as were overstocked medical goods of the manufacturers and wholesalers. Here was an organization aggressively recapturing those goods, sorting them, inventorying them, and distributing those goods to hospitals and clinics in every part of the world where they had no current supplies and no adequate pieces of medical equipment . . . even emergency rooms that had nothing at all! Her heart was captured.

The warehouse fellow told her he needed help simplifying the sorting guides to help the many warehouse volunteers more easily sort the thousands of items being inventoried. That's when she recruited husband Dave. Later, they were given the challenge to take the forklifts and rearrange certain areas of the warehouse to make the loading and shipping process easier. Dave and Millie saw that they were needed and that they were making a huge difference in how the entire operation functioned. Very quickly they caught the significance of how each piece of the donated medical goods could make the difference between life and death in some patient on the other side of the world. People would be receiving life- saving goods and would never even know Dave and Millie Truitt, or ever be able to tell them, "thank you."    

Today, Dave and Millie Truitt oversee the staging, loading, and shipping of the huge ocean-going cargo containers headed out to over 125 needy countries of the world. They have faithfully been at their jobs at Project C.U.R.E. for over 12 years. They are full-time, non- paid volunteers who drive over an hour travel time in order to show up and excitedly go to work.

Dave and Millie Truitt are true heroes to me. They did not make the mistake of doing nothing just because they could only do a little. They took what appeared to be just a little job and made it into a great and significant, life changing accomplishment!