Financial Crisis - a scenario for change

by Michela Collett
(Cape Town)

10/07/08
The World Financial Crises..... Part Two
Could this be the time for a change........?

Essay by Michela Collett

comments to collett@tiscali.co.za



Who are the kings? I have used the term kings as it is an archetypal term probably with a poor rap. In the good old days we had good kings and bad kings and I wondered where all the kings had gone, so I decided to revive the role.

They are people who are born to work within a community and at some point make themselves available to be king, should the community so choose them. When they make the commitment they make it knowing they will be invested with the powers of the king for as long as the people they preside over want them, which could be their whole life. The community they preside over is not one determined by boundaries and borders, its nature is social, ethnic, religious even commercial. In this scenario they will answer to the international currency.
The kings sole task is to protect the people in their kingdom on a personal level. To see that they can aspire to be the best that they can be. Should their kingdom be threatened by another they have the right to call on the central military for protection. In our current world that would be the United Nations armed peacekeepers.
They will initially be largely involved in facilitating the transition from a capitalist based to an earth resource based/free market economy – protectors against greed and avarice – taking guidance from their fellow council of kings and the independent judiciary. In these modern times this would be the world court who could refer the matter to a judiciary of its choosing.
So the jurisdiction of the kings are the welfare of the people they protect. They are appointed for life by their people should they make the choice to make themselves available. The people have the right to force their abdication or they can choose to abdicate if they fail in this duty. A list of potential kings should be kept by all communities, however a major role of the king would be the grooming of a successor. The people will be asked to accept or reject the successor.
The kings can summon the military they need to insure their protection, the cost of this will be paid in international currency. The council of kings is arranged in the round table format summoning those involved depending on the decisions needed or issues involved. It is likely that resistance will be in small pockets as opposed to nation against nation.

In the Chinese culture there was an Emperor. They were good and bad and they had ministers serving under them. The Chinese equivalent of a king. Currently we have no kings only a whole bag of temporary ministers. However they serve an important role even if the continuity of their tenure is often the downfall of the welfare of a nation. No better than a bad king at least you don't have them forever I hear you say. However why not have them all - the existence of both will create a natural system of checks and balances. Perhaps the closest we have to modern kings in today's world are Corporation CEO's and Trade Union leaders.

So existing beside the kings would still be diplomatic and political structures solely as infrastructural and service delivery oriented mechanisms to watch dog the expenditure of taxes by the bureaucracy or the town, region, nation, continent or world.

Perhaps the buck will then finally stop on the Round Table of our New Kings, men and women prepared to serve for life if need be. Still thinking about the Queens in society will let you know.....

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Thank you to previous generations for your ingenuity, we will not throw the baby out with the bath water, we will only change one thing, no free lunches on the back of the earth or any living being inhabiting it.