7th event of Better Future Better Myanmar 2015 Free Seminar Series

“GIFT ECONOMY”28th June, 2015 (Sunday), 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM

UMFCCI, Yangon

COLLABORATIVE COMMUNITY

Prof.Dr.Aung Tun Thet

INTRODUCTION

GIVING

Transcends and includes money

Not primary

GIFTS

Essential

Value unconditional

Care

Support

Not exchange

GIFTS

Taught to give

Because it is good

Not to get anything in return

GIFTS

Give our hearts

Not only money

Our talents, skills, leadership capacities, and love

GIFTS

Gratitude

Generosity

Infectious

Selflessness

Magnanimity

WORLD GIVING INDEX (WGI)

MYANMAR

High incidence of donating money

Rose to 91% from 85%

Number of people who give money rather than actual dollar amount

DEFINITIONS

GIFT ECONOMY

Relationships

Not transactions for profit or personal material gain

Contrast to barter or commercial economies

GIFT ECONOMY

Altruism

Spreading wealth

GIFT ECONOMY

More ancient than money economy

Money - concentrated and abstract form of gift

Connect with each other - transcends fee-for-service

More powerful than anything money can buy

GIFT ECONOMY

“Sacred economics”

“Pay-what-you-can”

“Strategy of generosity”

Catching on

GIFT ECONOMY

Collaborative

Creative

Immersive

Participatory

GIFT ECONOMY

Your good fortune is my good fortune

More for you is more for me!

GIVING VERSUS GREED ECONOMY

Surplus

Shelter

Survival (Food, Clothing)

GREED

Capitalism = Surplus TAKEN

GIFT

Gift Economy = Surplus GIVEN

BUILD COMMUNITY Economy of Gifts

SENSE OF COMMUNITY

Missing

Why?

Impossible in highly monetized society

COMMUNITY

Woven from gifts

Poor people have stronger communities than rich people

Rich people

Financially independent

Don't depend on anyone for anything

Pay someone to do it

COMMUNITY

Former times

People depended for necessities and pleasures on people they knew personally

If you alienated local merchant or doctor, no replacement

Quality of life much higher

COMMUNITY

Not an add-on to life

Way of life

TODAY

We don't need anyone

Replaceable

So am I!

MARKET SYSTEM

Built-in scarcity

Competition – “More for me is less for you”

MONETIZED SOCIETY

Superficiality of most social gatherings

Unconscious knowledge "I don't need you"

Do not draw on gifts of people present

RECLAIM GIFT CULTURE

Build true community

Shift of human consciousness

Reunion with nature, earth, each other

INTIMACY

Comes from co-creation

Not co-consumption

Different from liking or disliking someone

FORGE COMMUNITY

More than getting people together

Not just talking

Do something

Create something

MONETIZATION OF LIFE

Reached peak

Beginning long and permanent receding

Desire and necessity

RECLAIM GIFT CULTURE

We are not independent or "financially secure"

Just as dependent as before

CONCRETE EXAMPLES

“We don't charge for anything, nor do we advertise anything.

The project is sustained by anonymous friends who donate what they can,

not as a payment for what they have received,

but as a pay-it-forward act for someone they don't know ...

someone like you."

IMAGINE

Walking into corner grocery

Filling basket with what you need

Leaving behind what you can financially

Walking away with no formal exchange

Economic relationship works better than formal market economy

Impossible?

KARMA KITCHEN

No prices on menu

Check reads $0.00

Person who was there before you pays for your meal

When you leave, you pay for the next person

KARMA KITCHEN

"You get what you pay for.

And if you never try paying for it,

you might even get more."

PANERA BREAD

Three gift-economy “Panera Cares Cafes” in St. Louis, Detroit, and Portland, USA

“Trust people - they’ll surprise you.”

HELPOTHERS.ORG

Dedicated to small acts of kindness

Paying for stranger's meals at restaurants

“Smile Cards" - ideas for nice things to do

GIFT CIRCLES

GIFT ECONOMY

Wealth circulates

Gravitate toward greatest need

People know gifts come back to them

In new form

“Circle of the gift"

GIFT CIRCLES

Dynamics of gift systems

Ramifications for economy, psychology, and civilization

GIFT CIRCLE

Less we use money

Less time we need to earn it

More time to contribute to gift economy

Virtuous circle

GIFT CIRCLE

10-20 participants

Everyone sits in circle

Takes turns saying one or two needs they have

GIFT CIRCLE

“Ride to airport next week"

“Someone to help remove fence"

“Ladder to clean gutter"

“Bike"

“Office furniture for community center"

GIFT CIRCLE

As each person shares

Others break in to offer to meet need

Or suggestions of how to meet it

GIFT CIRCLE

Go around circle again

Each person stating something he or she would like to give

"Graphic design skills"

“Use of my power tools"

“Contacts in local government to get things done"

Anything: time, skills, material things; gift of something outright, or gift of use of something (borrowing)

GIFT CIRCLE

As each person shares

Anyone can speak up and say, "I'd like that" or "I know someone who could use one of those"

GIFT CIRCLE

Someone write everything down

Name and phone number of someone who wants to give or receive something to/from you

Send notes out next day to everyone via email, or on web page, blog, etc.

Essential to follow up

GIFT CIRCLE

Do third round

People express gratitude for things received since last meeting

Extremely important

GIFT CIRCLE

Witnessing of others' generosity inspires generosity in those who witness it

Confirms giving to each other

Gifts recognized, recognized, appreciated, and reciprocated

GIFT CIRCLE

Simple

1. Needs

2. Gifts

3. Gratitude

Effects profound

CONCLUSION

GIFT ECONOMY

Reduce dependence on traditional market

Reduce production of waste – sharing without loss of quality of life

GIFT ECONOMY

New forms emerging on Internet

Reclaiming human relationships from market

GIFT ECONOMY

Age of humanity

From mother-child relationship to earth

To co-creative partnership - giving and receiving find balance

TRANSITION TO GIFTS

Things created for love and beauty

Connect more deeply to people

Interdependent not independent

GIFT ECONOMY

New kind of civilization

New relationship to earth

New more connected human identity

GIFT ECONOMY

Common wealth - preserve or reclaim

Richness in soil, water, cultures planet

Another kind of common wealth – reservoir of gratitude

GIFT ECONOMY

New kind of civilization

Need each others' gifts

Need each others' generosity

We need each other!

Thank you!

09 797367944 & 09 797367955 

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