The UsuryFree Eye Opener

The UsuryFree Eye Opener is the electronic arm of the UsuryFree Network. It seeks active usuryfree creatives to help advance our mission of creating a usuryfree lifestyle for everyone on this planet. Our motto is 'peace and plenty before 2020.' The UsuryFree Eye Opener publishes not only articles related to the problems associated with our orthodox, usury-based 1/(s-i) system but also to the solutions as offered by active usuryfree creatives - and much more for your re-education.

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Money For Local Living Economies

Complementary Currencies: Money for Local Living Economies was a sub-conference of the Fourth Annual International BALLE Conference. It was held at Champlain College - Burlington, Vermont and was co-sponsored by the E.F. Schumacher Society, and The Burlington Currency Project and (BALLE) Business Alliance for Local Living Economies.


On June 7th and 8th I attended this "Money in Local Living Economies" conference explored the evolution of our current money and financial system, how it works and why it is detrimental to healthy local economies and communities. The rest of the day explored the world of "complementary currencies," visionary and practical monetary innovations that have arisen in response to these flaws inherent in our current system and the potential of these systems for stimulating local economies, increasing the circulation of wealth, developing loyalty to local and regional businesses, and empowering municipal governments.


In summary, the cutting edge work being done within the world of ‘complementary currencies’ was covered. This usuryfree community currency movement is based largely on a bottom up approach. It promotes a fundamental decentralization of the control of money. Since it is created without usury, it is different from our orthodox system of usury-based money. It is usuryfree and it is often referred to by different names such as: local currency, community currency, time currency, targeted currency, alternative currency, trade or barter credits, and loyalty points.


These terms have arisen from slightly different philosophies but they all share a general intent which is to create a ‘secondary’ currency independent of any central bank in the orthodox system of usury-based finance. Instead it is created and controlled by the people and the community in which it serves.

The purpose of these usuryfree community currencies is, to optimally meet unmet needs with unused resources. The result being that exchanges and relationships that would otherwise not have taken place due to lack of money are made possible.


This conference provided a new sense of what is possible around money.as we progress into this 21st Century. The more than 200 attendees of this conference got a sense of the various potential applications of complementary currencies – how they can empower our respective communities, how they can grow and strengthen our local economies and how they are encouraging greater environmental responsibility.


Some of the speakers and their websites are herein listed:


Bernard Lietaer: www.transaction.net/money/bio/lietaer.html

Susan Witt: http://www.schumachersociety.org/

Paul Glover: http://www.ithacahours.com/

Amy Kirschner: http://www.burlingtoncurrency.org/

Gerald Wheatley: http://www.calgarydollars.ca/

Tom Greco: http://www.reinventingmoney.com/

Krista Vardebash: http://www.burlingtoncurrency.org/

Annette Riggs: http://www.currentinnovations.org/

Bridget Croke: http://www.recyclebank.com/

Julian Darley: http://www.postcarbon.org/

Arthur Brock: http://www.targetedcurrencies.net/

Eric Harris-Braun: http://www.harris-braun.com/

Mark McDonough: http://www.timedollar.org/


Complementary Currencies: Money for Local Living Economies was a sub-conference of the Fourth Annual International BALLE Conference. It was held at Champlain College - Burlington, Vermont and was co-sponsored by the E.F. Schumacher Society, and The Burlington Currency.


Awakening To The Reality Of UsuryFree Living !!

Awakening To The Reality Of UsuryFree Living !!
By Tom J. Kennedy

During my 25+ years as an active usuryfree creative, I am able to understand and explain the inner workings of our orthdox economic system of usury-based, debt money. It can be visualized as a compartementalized, heirarchal pyramid which is stabalized by the hidden fifth column - usury. The key purpose of the design flaw of usury is to permit greedy creditors to exploit desperate debtors - both of whom are often ignorant about the simplicity of modern money creation.

From the desperate debtors at the base of the economic pyramid, to the helpful but ill-informed staff at the various commercial banking corporations, to the greedy creditors - the global banking cartel at its apex, the orthdox system of usury-based, debt money controls the whole world. Intensive research during the latter years of the 20th Century by numerous usuryfree creatives has proven that indeed, usury is the direct and/or indirect cause of wars, violence, poverty, scarcity and lack.

After learning about the evil and immoral aspects of usury, I assumed the responsibility to teach others what they don’t know they don’t know. Describing the evils of the design flaw of usury is not sufficient; it is also important to extend the re-education process to include a variety of the optimal usuryfree alternatives.

Ghislaine Lanctot, in her recently published book titled “Madame Ghis - Escape In Prison,” points out that in any system there is a body and a soul. In our orthodox financial system, the body is the whole economic infrastructure (hardware and software) and indlcues: the CEO’s, management staff and branch staff of banking corporations, other financial entities or corporations as well as all levels of government corporations (municipal, provincial/state and federal).

The soul of our orthodox system of usury-based, debt money is obviously, the debtor. The debtor can be identified as any individual, family, small to medium-sized business, transnational corporation or any government corporation (municipal, provincial/state, or federal.) It is interesting to note that some of the above entities double as both debtors and creditors. Nevertheless, the debtor is always servant to the system and willingly submits to the creditor.

Consider the possibility that in the world of the 21st Century, the debtor is awakening to realize that s/he or it, holds the real power. No debtor, no modern system of usury-based, debt money!!

If the truth be known, the modern, economic system of usury-based, debt money is as broke as the debtors it is supposed to help. The whole orthdox system of usury-based, debt money is completely inverted. It is time to awaken debtors and motivate them to shift consciousness. Each debtor is encouraged to follow a self-imposed course of study about the many problems associated with our orthdox system of usury-based, debt money. These awakened debtors will create the change needed to shift the individual and collective consiousness.

Likewise, debtors must familiarize themselves with the optimal solutions as offered by active usuryfree creatives who are leading the way and blazing a trail by implementing workable and proven models of usuryfree living. Indeed, numerous usuryfree creatives are proving that we-the-people are capable of re-educating ourselves and learning how to create and spend our own usuryfree community or personal currencies.

Informed debtors now know that any debt or IOU - without usury or interest - is not a problem. Instead, it has been proven that the “growth of debt” or “interest” which ought to be correctly called “usury” is the killer machine that must be abolished forever.

The underlying cause of this Granddaddy depression of the 21st Century is that the soul (debtor) has been tricked to accept that a little “interest” is necessary but that any amount over a high percentage (e.g. 60%) is “usury.” An awakened debtor knows that money cannot have babies and that “interest” and/or “usury” is theft.

Few people know that historically, usury is absolutely forbidden by all of the Holy Books including the Christian Bible - yet few clergy will talk about this in the pulpit. Too many debtors in this 21st Century commonly view themselves as powerless and accept to be hopelessly enslaved by creditors.

The life of a debtor commonly consists of working/slaving as a little corpration to earn more and more money to pay more and more usury and taxes to the bigger government corporations - in return for minimal benefits from the system. Ill-informed debtors give away their power against the promise of wealth. Debtors pay dearly for their ignorance about the truth of money creation.

My ongoing research is convincing me that every individual living on planet earth will be living in peace, abundance and prosperity when usury is forever abolished. Think “unlimited wealth” and project this possible goal to be universally applied to the collective consciousness. After all, it is the state of consciousness and the actions of the debtor that will eventually usher in the new age of usuryfree living.

Usuryfree living was exactly the solution proposed way back in the Middle Ages. Do a search at any search engine for “Life Without Usury,” then read and re-read the article and share it with others. What they did then can be done again in this 21st Century.

The concept of usuryfree living can be adapted to suit individuals, families, small-to-medium sized businesses and giant transnational corporations as well as any level of our government corporations (municipal, provincial/state, and federal). However, in reality, none of us is freed from usury, until all of us are freed from usury.

In the meantime, what can we do? The optimal answer is to begin the process of re-education and then use viral marketing to network this newly acquired knowledge to others. Mathematicians declare that 3% is the magic number that is commonly referred to as the ‘tipping point.’ This simply means that when 3% of the population understand the concept of usuryfree living, then it will quickly become a reality experience worthy of pursuit by the other 97% of the population.

In summary, anyone who is usuryfree or who is intent on becoming usuryfree is awakening to the reality of usuryfree living.

Readers who are potential usuryfree creatives are invited to begin a self-imposed re-education journey by going to any search engine and typing any/all of these words or phrases:

usuryfree living
usuryfree community currency
usuryfree community currency movement
usuryfree day
usuryfree week
usuryfree network
usuryfree creatives
usury no more
life without usury
beyond the age of usury
Letsystem usuryfree
Tommy UsuryFree

“None of us are freed from usury until all of us are freed from usury.”
- Tommy UsuryFree

“Why are we-the-people still using their (the bankers’) money and paying them a fee (usury) when we have learned that we can create and spend our own money for FREE?” - Tommy UsuryFree

“Share with others what you know about becoming usuryfree, so that others may learn what they didn’t know they didn’t know.” - Tommy UsuryFree

“The secret of usuryfree living is the constancy and expansion of usuryfree trading.” - Tommy UsuryFree