THE FUTURE OF MONEY Bernard A. Lietaer - library.uniteddiversity ...

After only three years, the community fabric is already strong and
goes way beyond what an economic analysis might show about
people exchanging goods or services in another way. Neighbours
keep abreast of local issues by e-mail, and computer-literate residents
offer free Internet lessons to any neighbour wishing to join. Nikolai
Vishnesky, 40, who started the e-mail system last year says, 'Now
folks can take technology that is usually used for global interaction
and make it a local resource.
Neighbours deter crime by patrolling the streets at night, publish a
neighbourhood Newsletter, take turns looking after each other's
children in play groups, help housebound seniors, grow food on a
community farm in Upper Marlboro and greet new neighbours.
Martha Monroe, 38, believes, 'We are unique because in most
Washing- ton suburban neighbourhoods, people get home From their
job in the city, watch television and go to bed.'
4. Curutiba: the Brazilian city which left the Third World
In 1971, Jaime Lerner became mayor of Curitiba, the capital of the
south-eastern state of Parana, Brazil. He was an architect by
profession. Quite typical of the region, the urban population had
mushroomed from 120,000 people in 1942 to over a million when
Jaime became mayor. By 1997, the population had reached 2.3
million. Again, quite typically, the majority of these people lived in
favelas, shantytowns made out of cardboard and corrugated metal.
One of Jaime Lerner's first big headaches was rubbish. The town
rubbish collection trucks could not even get into the favelas because
there were no streets wide enough for them. As a consequence, the
rubbish just piled up, rodents got into it, and all kinds of diseases
broke out. A mountain-sized mess. Because they didn't have the
money to apply 'normal' solutions, such as bulldozing the area and