Our deepest regrets go out to Kauilapele, who yesterday was closed down by WordPress. Up till now the repression in the world has been theoretical. But now it’s been made real.
If we’re closed down, we’ll simply pick up stakes and move to a new location. If so, we’ll broadcast it on Facebook.
Our job is to get everyone across the finish line. And that job won’t change because of repression.
Once again the rumor mill is citing next week as the Reval’s date.
How many times have we been through this?
However I will say one thing – and I hope you hear me down there in Washington – releasing the Reval on “the rebound” from Coronavirus would be the wisest course of action, for my money (no pun intended).
If states are ending lockdown, that would be the moment to release the funds and let us get to work.
That having been said, I planned to take the first week off to do nothing but adjust. And then a month to travel. Now it looks like a week doing nothing and time away if it can be afforded.
First order of business, when I do get down to things, will be to offer Prime Minister Trudeau to finance him sending out $10,000 to every Canadian citizen, landed immigrant, etc., and $5,000 to every child under 13. (1) That would be designed to offset initial financial loss from the virus. (Is that enough?)
I’ll be interested in talking universal basic income, universal accessibility, etc., after I have my full team in place.
Michael has warned me that, if I don’t take a vacation at the outset, I may never take one after things start rolling. He’s probably right.
How am I to explain to my new employees that I (and by extension they) work for an archangel? To the bank? To the Prime Minister?
Now I see why Michael doesn’t want me to have a board of directors or shareholders, etc. I have enough to manage convincing people I really do work for an archangel without there being competing power centers. It’s going to be lonely but I need to do this alone, given how unusual the situation will be.
Supposing the Reval really is in the offing, I’ve created charts that go over all aspects of the operations of the various companies that’ll make up Michaelangelo & Partners. I have all of Michael’s instructions arranged in topic headings and run off in several volumes.
Apart from the fact that I know absolutely nothing about the business I’m about to get involved in, I’m as ready as I ever will be.
When I’ve protested to my senior partner that I know little about finances, he’s pointed to skills which I have that I wouldn’t have connected to it, primarily a sense of values.
What an interesting word to use. Sociologist Max Weber was the first to make the distinction between facts and values. And, yes, I’ve always been more interested in social values than scientific facts. (2)
He didn’t mention it but I’m aware that I seem to have an ability to take an overview of things and to recognize patterns. So, though these have no direct bearing on finance, they are nevertheless what I bring to the party.
Oh, and I plan to do a lot of listening. I plan to reach consensus, when that’s in order, by working from a whiteboard. I love being at a whiteboard pulling things together.
When my decision alone is called for, I plan to reach it by the ways I’ve been trained at the Immigration and Refugee Board. Decision-making is actually an art. (3)
Working for the IRB is just one example of how everything I seem to have done in my life produced some useful knowledge or skill.
I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. And, as far as I’m concerned, this is the time.
Footnotes
(1) For the purposes of this payout, a child will be assumed to have “adult” expenses at age 13.
(2) Not like I don’t acknowledge the importance of facts; I just have a preference for studying values.
(3) See Decision-Making at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 1/2 (2018) at https://goldenageofgaia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Decision-Making-at-the-IRB-12-R2.pages.pdf and Decision-Making at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada 2/2 (2018) at https://goldenageofgaia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Decision-Making-at-the-IRB-22-R2.pages.pdf