Change is coming - hopefully

If you needed a more telling indication of the absurdity of our current global arrangements look no further than the eurozone ”bailout”. Apart from the fact that this is not a solution but merely a cobbled together postponement we have the ghastly spectacle of Europe’s barely chastened leaders sending their envoy, cap in hand, to an appalling totalitarian regime to beg for cash to help them out of a utterly self imposed crisis. The supreme irony is that the money they hope to secure was once their own but was happily handed over in exchange for cheap goods produced in poor circumstances with an artificially subsidised exchange rate at the expense of their own citizens jobs. And the bargaining chip? We will criticise less your human rights record and maybe make you a market economy. So much for Tahrir Square I haven’t forgotten Tiananmen Sq.

And that this ridiculous sticking plaster onto a gaping wound should happen on the 25^th anniversary of Big Bang – that monument to greed and selfishness - and the announcement that UK Directors have seen their remuneration package expand vigorously at a time when others are forced to tighten their belt in “austerity measures” only makes the situation more repulsive.

Now we have Nicolas Sarkozy finally saying what many of us said all along that Greece shouldn’t have joined the Euro. But then Europe loves making rules that it can then simply ignore. Perhaps Mr Sarkosy might want to turn that new found sharp economic insight onto getting the EU accounts audited and signed off for the first time in umpteen years – but that might open up another can of worms of fudge, fraud, graft and greed.

However – there has to be hope and I find some comfort in Don Tapscotts challenge and vision that mass collaboration can change things and turn long held assumptions on their head. As the printing press played a role in bursting open the corruption and vested interest of religious institutions, and lit the fire of many a revolution so too must mass collaboration liberate us from our tired and broken institutions. Unlike Don I don’t think they have or do serve us well – hasta la vicotria siempre!