We talked about green energy and about how with a bit a time and a few mouse clicks you can contribute to the “right” direction. Now I would like to draw you attention to a different but in my opinion equally important way to do good.
(Somehow it’s funny, cause to do good in these cases merely means not to do bad. Anyway, it’s pretty pathetic to talk in terms of good and bad, right or wrong etc. I just think who ever is reading this and is willing to do something will agree with me that in order to speed up and simplify this text a little, we can use such vocabulary.)
I would like to talk about ‘banking’.
Recently I saw documentary on the dutch TV called ‘Zembla’.
It was about banks in The Netherlands and what they do with their money. It was horrible. Not the documentary, but what they found out. I mean, I guess I kind of knew that there are dirty things happening in the world of banking. “Where there is a lot of money there is mostly not much conscious and humanity.” But this!
The big banks of Holland, ING (Postbank) Fortis, Rabobank, ABN AMRO have their hands basically in everything you don’t want to get involved with.
It starts with arms. All of them are investing their money in companies that produce weapon, bombs and mines! What ever you say about war, weapons etc but mines are in my opinion one of the worst ideas to hurt people. Have you every seen the pictures of the kids that stepped on one and got their legs ripped off? Often those mines stay in an area for many years even though the conflict has stopped already.
These reporters from the ‘Zembla’ found out that all of the above-mentioned banks, even though they might deny it are investing their money in producing such things.
Further Zembla (or to be precise a guy, called D. Pols from ‘Milieudefensie’, another dutch environmental group) did research to which extant those banks contribute to global warming. As you might expect they all invest in energy source such as coal, gas and nuclear power. And it’s not only peanuts they put into those cooperation.
To give an example:
Exxon Mobil is a cooperation based in the USA that produces oil on the big scale. Exxon Mobil is known to be very indifferent towards environmental issues when it comes to exploring oil sources and producing it. ING (Postbank) is investing more than 1 milliard (1.000.000.000) Euro in Exxon Mobil. That is more than what the entire world is investing into alternative energy source all together!!!
This gives you a picture of the proportions we are talking about. I am sure they are all also investing in alternative energy source to polish their image towards the outside,
but if you compare the quantities…
And it’s not all; the documentary gives other examples of awful, damaging projects in the world that would not have been possible without the financial support of dutch banks. It basically covers the whole range of things you don’t want to support. It goes from weapons to environmental issues to suppressing of ‘Fair Trade’ and children labor in third world countries.
The documentary was about the dutch banks and broadcasted in The Netherlands, but to right away avoid any misunderstanding, I am pretty sure that almost every big bank in any country of the world is no better than these banks in The Netherlands.
And now I am coming to key point of this article.
The money they are using is not theirs, it’s ours. We all lend our money to the banks so that they can administrate and grow it at the best possible rate.
At the best possible rate?
Even though it inclines big damage to the environment and other people in the world?
And here we are, innocent citizens who just wanted to give the little savings we have to the bank, so that over time the little maybe becomes a little more. And suddenly by reading this, there is no point anymore in saying ‘I didn’t know about it’, suddenly the responsibility kicks in, we become alliances with the banks, we support the production of weapons and mines, pollute the environment and abuse cheap labor in poor countries.
Well, yes, until now. But since we know now, let’s do something.
What can we do?
First of all, we can complain. We can ask our bank what they are investing in and demand that our money will not be used for such things.
In Europe banks usually claim that what they do with the money we lend them should be kept secret, so that other competing banks cannot take advantage of that information. In the US on the other hand the banks are forced by law to publish what they invested in. I believe that transparency is vital. If an institution is asking us, the costumers to trust them and lend them our money, we are giving power into their hands. I think we should have the right to know what they are doing with the power we give them.
Second and in my opinion most effective, we can change to another bank. This depends very much on the country you are living in, but there are a few banks that guarantee you to only invest in ‘good’ stuff. Transparency in their investments is an important factor for those banks. According to the ‘Zembla’ the two ‘good’ banks in Holland, Triodos and ASN are investing 100 times more money in alternative energy than the ‘bad’ ones together.
If there is such a bank in your country I would advice to first open a saving account. After all this is probably the biggest amount of money we have and usually meant to stay with the bank for a period of time. For everybody that has doubts about economical profitability, I can assure you that at least in The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Spain the percentage you get on your savings is most of the time equal to conventional banks. For practical reasons they are all offering online banking. Transferring money from your former conventional account to your saving account at the new bank is as quick as it was when it stayed within one bank.
If you live in Holland and you want to abandon your bank completely (which would be probably the best), you can change to Triodos Bank. Triodos is offering a ‘normal’ account with a bankcard and cash-withdraw in all Europe at the same price as any other bank in Holland. The only disadvantage is that there is probably hardly any service point within your range.
I know that in Germany the GLS Bank is offering a similar service, though I am not familiar with the conditions.
For everybody that has an account at ING (Postbank), ABN AMRO, Fortis or Rabobank, you can use this link and complain with a pre-formulated letter again with only a few mouse clicks.
http://www.nietmetmijngeld.nl/page/homepage
For everybody who speaks dutch here the link to see ‘zembla’:
www.uitzendinggemist.nl/index.php/aflevering?aflID=4766349&md5=97497fd0942b294810a91c0370637aeb
Here the links to the ‘good’ banks:
Holland:
www.triodos.nl
www.asn-bank.nl
Germany:
www.triodos.de
www.umwelt-bank.de
www.gls-bank.de
Belgium:
www.triodos.be
Spain:
www.tridos.es