The Fifth Annual UsuryFree Day & Week - Looking Back and Looking Ahead!

Five years have passed since the first UsuryFree Day and Week was celebrated on November 13th, 2005, in Tamworth, a small village in rural eastern Ontario, Canada. The launch of UsuryFree Day was intended to honour the 1st anniversary of the Tamworth Hours project. Tamworth Hours, a usuryfree time currency was founded on November 13th, 2004 with a goal to help re-build the spirit of local community. And where are we in 2009?

The Tamworth Hours project has stumbled along since its launch in 2004 but it never really grew as it could have or should have. There was a flurry of trading activity in the initial stages of the project among the participants who were enroled as time-traders.

It seems that the majority of local consumers resisted making any significant changes to their shopping habits. Some locals first enroled as time-traders and then they asked to have their name deleted from the database.

Most of the local newspapers gave it good coverage except “The Scoop” which refused to even carry any advertisements for the Tamworth Hours project. With less than 80 participants enroled as time-traders in the Tamworth Hours project, and no visible support from the local council, nor from the “Boosters,” the project has dwindled.

A few of the initial participants were local retail businesses and home-based enterprises in Tamworth and surrounding areas and others who were enroled as time-traders were local residents with talents, services and/or products.

Nothing really surprising about this because the usuryfree community currency movement fosters new economic ideas and consumers don’t like changing their shopping habits, therefore resistance is normal and commonly expected.

The good news is that as the current Recession deepens to a Depression, more and more local consumers everywhere are expected to experience more severe economic pain and this will motivate them to make themselves familiar with the usuryfree community currency movement and how it can be their ‘economic lifeboat’ in chaotic, economic times.

Since 2005, usuryfree creatives have launched new usuryfree community currency projects elsewhere. Indeed, as lessons are learned, more and more usuryfree creatives are coming forth to take leadership roles in launching local projects. In fact, Mark Herpel, from Michigan has launched the ‘Community Currency Magazine” at this url: http://www.ccmag.net

Paul Grignon, from Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada has created two great teaching DVDs - “Money As Debt I” and “Money As Debt II” since 2005. These DVDs are very good primer lessons for anyone seeking to understand the “truth” about money creation in Canada and the United States of America. These DVDs are being used as teaching tools at events to celebrate the Fifth Annual UsuryFree Day & Week.

What is pushing this usuryfree community currency movement forward? It’s the faltering, usury-based, debt money economy. And more specifically, it is the positive feedback caused by the design flaw of usury (interest) on the orthdox money system. It is this element of positive feedback that causes the forever and ongoing shortage of money that in turn causes cutbacks in government programs.

It seems that as more and more debtors experience increasing economic pain, they are more likely to be motivated to explore ideas that support shopping locally.

The teaching that any usuryfree community currency facilitates the shift to local shopping is evidenced by the growing numbers of ‘locavores’ who now realize the importance of choosing to spend their money differently.

To read more background information about UsuryFree Day and Week in general do a search at any search engine for “UsuryFree Day and Week.” For more specific information about the “Fifth Annual UsuryFree Day and Week” in particular, you are invited to read these articles which are posted at The UsuryFree Eye Opener:

http://usuryfree.blogspot.com/2009/08/fifth-annual-usuryfree-dayweek-nov-13th.html

http://usuryfree.blogspot.com/2009/08/invitation-to-participate-and-celebrate.html

http://usuryfree.blogspot.com/2009/09/winged-lion-awards.html

And do check The UsuryFree Eye Opener for any updated details that may be posted between now and November 13th, 2009. http://usuryfree.blogspot.com

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