The New Revolution
In 2011 our founder Terry Hallman died in Ukraine. He was one of some 50 million Americans without health insurance.
I recently unearthed one his articles, written for Daily Kos that I hadn’t been aware of. He wrote of Americans under seige and healthcare was top of his list:
“Health care has been priced out of reach for those without real insurance coverage, creating a fortress. Those inside it have health care, and those outside are left on their own with greatly diminished prospects for survival. That is a siege against those outside. If that includes you, you are under siege. We’re being threatened with death by passive measures rather than active measures. We are under siege. We are begging government to do something, to intervene and stop it. Begging to survive. Begging to not be shunted aside and left to die from deprivation.”
Soon after this article we both has chronic medical conditions and thanks to the NHS, I was offered a treatment that would otherwise be unaffordable should I have shared the misfortune of living in America.
A year earlier In 2007, he’d delivered his ‘Marshall Plan’ strategy paper with its primary focus on welfare reform.
‘This is a long-term permanently sustainable program, the basis for “people-centered” economic development. Core focus is always on people and their needs, with neediest people having first priority — as contrasted with the eternal chase for financial profit and numbers where people, social benefit, and human well-being are often and routinely overlooked or ignored altogether. This is in keeping with the fundamental objectives of Marshall Plan: policy aimed at hunger, poverty, desperation and chaos. This is a bottom-up approach, starting with Ukraine’s poorest and most desperate citizens, rather than a “top-down” approach that might not ever benefit them. They cannot wait, particularly children. Impedance by anyone or any group of people constitutes precisely what the original Marshall Plan was dedicated to opposing. Those who suffer most, and those in greatest need, must be helped first — not secondarily, along the way or by the way. ‘
The following year he’d deliver the first of his presentations on Economics for Ecology at Sumy. His second presentation re-iterated a warning made first in 1996, about the risk of civil unrest.
19. We can choose to not reform capitalism, leave human beings to die from deprivation — where we are now — and understand that that puts people in self-defense mode.
20. When in self-defense mode, kill or be killed, there is no civilization at all. It is the law of the jungle, where we started eons ago. In that context, ‘terrorism’ will likely flourish because it is ‘terrorism’ only for the haves, not for the have-nots. The have-nots already live in terror, as their existence is threatened by deprivation, and they have the right to fight back any way they can.
21. ‘They’ will fight back, and do.
He was interviewed about his work in 2010 by Axiom News.
“Hallman is currently investigating the setup of a multi-million dollar fund offering split financial ROI if needed, that is, a portion to investor(s) and the remainder to P-CED.
The funds will be directed to concluding a project in the Ukraine which involves funding the training of residents to develop social businesses. Included in this work is supporting children who have disabilities, many of whom have been left to die in secretive locations. P-CED is helping to move these children to safety and give them access to modern healthcare.”
What followed in 2011 was the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street and within another 3 years, violent conflict in Ukraine.
Writing for HBR in 2011, Dominic Barton of McKinsey was re-iterating Hallman’s warning — “We can reform capitalism or have capitalism reformed for us”
All that I needed to do was share the story of how people-centered business had been doing that, since reasoning that the purpose of business is not maximising shareholder returns.
