SOCIETY
How Does It Feel to Be a Homeless Cancer Patient?
Honestly? It sucks!
A day in the life of a homeless cancer patient. Hospital. Hospital. Hospital. No time to do anything else. Up early to write another story with solutions. Yes, this homeless person has a computer. No, this homeless person doesn’t need a social worker because she’s not crazy or violent.
And yes, this cancer patient wants to make her life count for something. So, she writes, supports, and spreads seeds of infinite solutions.
There are so many solutions to our huge world problems. But what do we do? We choose to stay stuck in technological, commercial, and political lock-ins.
No powerful leader seems aware of the easy stuff.
Who are you? Blind bats? Or what?
You are all busy going undercover, sharing selfies about it, and being applauded for your guts. Guts, my ass!
The time for homeless monkey-watching is over.
It’s only the doing that counts!
It takes guts to get your butt off your comfortable plush, politicians! Stop debating and not agreeing. Everyone wants to solve the housing crisis! So, stop sharing selfies and stop the Vanity Fair.
Why don’t you feel in your bones that homeless people, like the freelance house painter you just met, pay for your soft bed and fancy clothes?
He and I are your bosses!
And we expect huge results within 4 years!
Why don’t you cut out the laws that do not serve us anymore? And use modern insights to give us all an unconditional basic income? Why don’t you balance supply and demand locally? Why don’t you question inheritances? Change taxing incomes. Tax death instead. Not taking money, but redistributing buildings?
We are just a species on a planet.
We are born naked and we die naked!
What makes me so angry today?
Our deputy minister of healthy shelters, Maarten van Ooijen shared his undercover night in a homeless shelter on LinkedIn. And I puke. From the chemo. From the unfairness of it all.
Where have you been, Maarten?
Under a stone?
Your LinkedIn profile says it: “Hoop bieden, dat is de kern waar deze rol voor mij om draait. Hoop bieden door te luisteren en mensen te begrijpen. Dat kan ik niet alleen, dat doen we samen. Samen bouwen we aan goede, toegankelijke zorg voor ieder kind en een gezonde toekomst voor iedereen.”
Translated: Offering hope. And doing it together.
That’s not what I pay you for, Maarten. You have been educated by my money for this job. You are a professional politician with a comfortable salary. You should get going with solutions!
Health is having a roof over our heads.
Well-Connected
I think not many people expect this story from me. I’m the soothing voice. Giving peeks into the future and inspiring people with good examples from around the world. Supporting us all to have the courage to stand up and make a difference.
And it will all be okay. In the long run.
If we don’t change anything sooner.
But I want it NOW! For me!
Yes, very egocentrically for ME! And for my friends on the fringes! I have not been under a stone, Maarten van Ooijen!
I live on the fringes of society.
My last home was a caravan because as a divorced freelancer I couldn’t afford anything else. And when we sold that cold and damp shelter to go fully nomadic and be where international changemakers ask us to be, I never could have envisioned that this would happen.
Me becoming seriously ill. Me in need of a hospital.
And now, we just can’t afford a house in our stupidly expensive country. And I have no time available to earn that kind of money either.
This is my country. But I’m so often ashamed I’m Dutch!
Yes, many good things are already happening in the world. But not because of any leaders. It’s the idealistic citizens and entrepreneurs who make their hands dirty.
My readers will most probably not expect a story like this from me because I’m so well-connected. Yes, I lecture at Green School Bali. It’s the place Richard Branson loves to be. And no, I’m not impressed by him.
He poops and pees just like me. He’s an animal species, just like me.
But apparently, he needs many many more bathrooms than me to pee in. That’s his personal choice. I make different choices. Freedom first. Then time. Only then some money for our basic needs
I came to this life to love and live and experience my body and soul.
I worked for years alongside the Steve Jobs of Sustainability, Gunter Pauli. Rather famous too. I have been a director of the Ecosystem Restoration Camps, founded by many famous environmentalists, including John Dennis Liu. The filmmaker and restorer of ecosystems.
And now, I’m lecturing at many international universities via the Born Global Foundation.
Yes, foundation. And that’s the problem in our SHITTY world.
People who make a difference are either in the start-up scene or in foundations. Begging for money from people like Branson and our governments.
Governments who clearly have no time for body and soul…
Money never interested me. But it starts to change.
With all the puking from chemo, I’m gonna puke out some fierce stories too.
My friends on the run-down regenerative farms deserve my fierceness toward powerful plush people. Because modern insights make the solutions easier than you might think.
We can navigate complexity with simplicity.
Some Easy Solutions?
- Economist and professor Stephanie Kelton explains it in “Myth of Government Deficits”. Because the dollar (and the euro) have been disconnected from gold, money is no issue. So, what’s stopping our governments from giving all people an unconditional basic income?
- Are you afraid that people do not want to work anymore? Well, research shows the opposite. We are an animal species. And the only natural enemies we have are other humans and illness. Take away our fear and stress and we become hugely creative!
- We want meaningful work even if it pays less. You can also choose to arrange for a partial basic income and not tax our community bread funds. We want community bread funds instead of commercial insurance companies that make the world even more expensive
- You should balance supply and demand locally. And communicate without manipulation. Yes, refugees from Syria and Ukraine need houses. Yes, people like me and all the young ones who cannot leave their parents’ wings right now need houses. And no, we’re not going to compete with each other. We’re going to distribute healthy shelters fairly. We’re going to renovate empty buildings with the rule: “Use it. Or lose it.” The land should be owned by our planet anyway and the assets upon the land can have threefold ownership. And after death, we don’t need a house anymore
- Cut out most of our stupid laws. We asked permission to build a small wooden cabin. Not allowed because of rules saying how high the doors of our cabin should be! Het ‘bouwbesluit’ is stupid micromanagement! Small, affordable, flexible rental is not available in our country. Farmers are not allowed to rent out their renovated sheds to Dutch citizens. Just to foreign seasonal laborers. Is that mad neo-liberalism, or what? And Mike and I are not going to live in concrete and asphalt cities. That’s my limit. I would die…
- Stop moving money around to try and be fair to poor people. When you arrange access to basic needs, you don’t need to pamper anyone. Pampering is controlling! We want to make our own choices!
- Access is all. Tax reform is next. Tax very simply when people die. And make a difference between assets/capital and cash flow. Don’t let us pay taxes (money) for stones. Stones are not cash flow! Redistribute buildings instead. Think about it. Who needs an inheritance when you have access to basic needs and your own (digital) creativity to earn more if you wish…
- And yes, taxing buildings and ownership mean the same for our King Willem Alexander. And his nephew, Prince Bernard, who owns half of Amsterdam
Who needs to own half of Amsterdam when you can only pee in one bathroom at a time?
And who has the guts to change something meaningful?
Dear powerful leader Maarten van Ooijen, do you have it in you?
Gratitude
And for the readers who know me, my views haven’t changed. My trusting love for life and ALL people haven’t faltered. I feel huge gratitude for my social capital. The people who offer us their houses when they go on holiday. The loving support of our family and friends.
We’ll manage.
Adaptive species are thriving species!
Some old-school credibility for my writing can be found LinkedIn. I’m a certified biomimicry and blue economy professional.
Thank you, Mike, for adding your wise energy to my words on abundance in our think-and do-tank Abundanism. Systemic Design for a good future.
Thank you, Gaia, for giving me Wild Writing. © Désirée Driesenaar, 2022
