Progetto Sfero / Monethica: the new company is already here – Interview with Davide Gionco
by Elisabetta Ziliotto
Sfero BarterFly Foundation and Monethica alongside Solidarity Communities
The urgent need to redesign an economy on a human scale
To build a more just and respectful society for the human person for the first time in Italy, people and organizations, animated by shared goals, are coming together in an innovative and revolutionary project aimed at recovering the authentic values that are the basis of civil life , both in social relations, both in the economy, with a view to networking small Italian businesses and the many local initiatives that already exist, made by people who hope to implement the "new society" : ecovillages, self-determination groups, parental schools, health facilities , virtuous supply chains and much more.
We talked about it with Davide Gionco, president of the Confederation of Popular Sovereignty association, who gave birth to the Solidarity Communities initiative with the aim of creating a common point of reference between all these realities.
How many of us find ourselves in the wrong society?
The economy is not working as it should, too many people are out of work or with a precarious job, even those who work increasingly struggle to make ends meet. Everything works to the advantage of the financial sector and a few multinationals that storm the media and the internet with publicity. Our small businesses close. Cities and towns are reduced to dormitories, devoid of small businesses; our best young people emigrate.
It would take another economy . Do you therefore believe there is a need for a new economic paradigm?
Money, the social invention created to facilitate exchanges and simplify relations between people and organizations, has changed from being a tool to an end, from being a servant it has become the owner or the tool through which few enrich themselves at the expense of 99% of society. The currency is issued exclusively against debts that states, businesses and citizens are obliged to repay and on which they pay interest on interest, without there being any possibility of using this instrument for the common good. This system has made us subservient and is wreaking havoc on our economy and our society. The credit system has ceased to support our businesses, has ceased to be a tool for development and has turned into an instrument of business failure and destruction. We need a new currency and a new credit system, at the service of the real economy and citizens, which has people at its center and which facilitates the exchange of goods and services that we ourselves produce.
Besides a new currency and a new credit system, what do you think about what's going on in public health?
Public health no longer works, despite the commitment of health professionals. Those who govern us continue to cut back on healthcare. There is a lack of family doctors. There is a shortage of doctors and nurses in the emergency room and hospitals. Many doctors are even prevented from treating their patients and consequently the sick are unable to find someone who can assist them. Those who govern health care are only interested in guaranteeing large profits to multinational drug companies and private clinics.
Let's talk about school now. What should be changed in order not to standardize the young minds, which are the most fragile part of society, but also the one that one day will ask us to account, not only for their formation, but also for what created an "alien" generation?
Public school is not working. We are the country in Europe that has applied the greatest restrictions on school activity during the pandemic. Our kids are reduced to numbers, they are no longer trained to acquire a critical sense. The school is no longer able to teach and train the adults of tomorrow. Teachers, increasingly unmotivated, are overwhelmed by bureaucracy and are prone to lose sight of the people they are called to train.
And what about the media and social media with which the news is served up? Are there alternatives to the mainstream regime?
The mainstream media is reduced to one-way government propaganda media. Good and courageous journalists can't find work; only journalists obedient to power find work. The Internet had made available to us spaces of freedom to have pluralistic information and to meet those who, like us, want a new society, but these spaces are increasingly limited, through censorship algorithms that limit visibility. We would need free and independent media and a new social media truly at the service of citizens, which brings people together, a social network that does not profile people for commercial purposes, but at the service of socialization, without manipulation.
The key to conditioning the media and social media are advertisements, in particular those of large multinationals, which, being the only financiers, I impose on these media to be solely a tool for their economic and even political interests, trampling the humanity of people.
Tell us more about the issue of advertising …
The media, including social media, have to cope with huge expenses, for the working hours of the managers, for the servers, etc., but above all they must guarantee rich profits to investors. If we want to have free media and not conditioned by the strong powers, we must finance them either with our donations or through "our" advertising circuit, at the service of small companies, which need to make their products known (which are useful for living), but respect citizens, without pretending to manipulate them. Hence the idea of giving life to a large socio-economic community, made up of citizens and businesses, which favors social and cultural exchanges, but also economic exchanges, including the advertising of economic activities, which allows both to know citizens about the quality products of our small businesses, but also, ultimately, to financially support “our” social media and the free information media at the service of this “new society”.
It would be great! Many of us think this way, but where to start?
In the midst of so many things that are wrong, the good news is that Italy is full of many renewal initiatives, carried out by people who believe in these values. We are many, many. And it is we citizens who work and produce useful goods and services with our professionalism, which allows us to thrive. To do all this we do not need multinationals, large banks, financial exchanges. The holders of political-financial power do not produce anything, but they make use of our work. If we stop working for them and organize ourselves to work for ourselves, the game will be won. The truth is that we are many, but the real problem is that we are missing. What is missing is a tool to help us transform many small operating communities.
From what we can deduce the key word is “let's create another company. But is it possible?
The first thing we need is a communication tool, which allows us to know and meet those who think like us. From here we can start and then organize the "new society", all together. Today the means of communication that we have at our disposal make all this very difficult. Communication via censored social media or via smartphone chat is somewhat inefficient. The good news is that what was missing before is now there and is called " Sfero ", the new 100% Italian social network managed by people who think exactly like us and who intend to create this "new company". me is the only social media accessible without registration and without cookies. People are not profiled to trim them targeted advertisements, there is no censorship on content, which happens regularly on other social networks when something is published that is not in line with the unique thinking of those who own them. The contents of Sfero.me can be truly seen and listened to by everyone, even by non-subscribers and this applies to all published contents, including podcasts.
How does this tool differ from the others?
Sfero.me wants to be a healthy, free and close alternative to people's most intimate and authentic feeling. The starting point of a new way of socializing, of getting to know each other and building a better world together. Daniele Di Luciano, CEO of Sfero explains it well: « For other social networks, the“ like ”button is very important as it forms the basis for the profiling of personal interests; however "likes" are addictive: users start publishing content not to relate to others, but to collect "likes". When they can't, it's hard to recognize, but they're sad. We, on Sfero, do not profile anyone, but we target advertisements through content ».
With Sfero.me the communication tool is made available, but how to create the economic circuit of the "new company"?
The initiative for the creation of the new economic circuit started from the BarterFly Foundation, with the project of giving life to a complementary currency and developing an economy more suited to small businesses and families. After a path of harmonization on values and purposes with other people who worked for the same purposes, the BarterFly, Sfero and Monethica Foundation 
, have joined forces for the world's first example of a social exchange system grafted onto a generative economy model. Let's imagine a sort of confederation of complementary interoperable currencies, which uses ETIX ® , the common functional currency, as a reference. The agreement makes it possible to facilitate communications through the creation of a common marketplace within the social Sfero. In this way it will be possible to involve in the economic community all the companies, associations and citizens who already participate in purchasing groups based on their own complementary currency. The many other solidarity purchasing groups (GAS) already present on the Italian territory and many other businesses and citizens who will become aware of it later will obviously also be able to join this circuit.
How do these realities intend to work together?
The agreement allows you to work simultaneously on several floors. Free information, which becomes a working tool for groups and associations, is joined by ETIX ®, the functional currency that gives economic support to families and businesses. Furthermore, the marketplace is created within the social network, which is the necessary tool to facilitate the meeting between citizens-sellers of goods and services, and citizens-buyers, knowing that citizens work in every company. The real innovation is to make various markets interact together, giving economic value, through the ETIX ® , also to exchanges between individuals.
An important challenge that you have proposed, but which obviously, in order to be successful, also requires the financial support of everyone.
The purpose of Sfero and the marketplace is to make known and promote the realities that have come into play to create the new economy, after which economic exchanges can take place by personal contact, locally, or by virtual contact, when the distance prevents people from going in person to shop from sellers.
To carry out these IT implementations, some programming work is still missing. This is why a fundraiser was launched on socialitaliano.me with the hashtag #tempodiunirsi. We are confident, because the values we carry forward and for which we fight and put ourselves at stake are those that should be the basis of a conscious humanity.
In an interview Giovanni Acquati, president of the BarterFly Foundation, and former co-founder of Banca Etica, described this fundraiser as a real "revolution of the heart"
Yes. I take up his words that are enlightening :, « With this fundraiser we enter a dream, as alive as it is necessary. Today people feel the need to get back in connection with themselves and with the territory, even before making money with a speculative finance devoid of any "vital sense", in the real meaning of the word ". While the great political powers challenge each other to the 'game' of war, to the detriment of the sovereignty and self-determination of peoples, people of good will are moving towards the construction of a new world, based on trust and comparison, on differences and on relationships, on reality, on collaboration, on the recovery of the sense of community ".
Not just a market then, but the creation of a network of committed people who believe in the values of solidarity. And here comes the project that is very close to her heart, I'm talking about Solidarity Communities
The Solidarity Communities project is the piece that completes the economic circuit, because it concerns the social involvement of solidarity citizens who are already committed to building the new society today. The project consists of reviewing and contacting existing realities, networking and making them aware that they are already an active part of the new company that is being born in our country. These people are then proposed to become part of the overall project of the socio-economic community that meets through the social Sfero.me.
In this way, the people involved in these initiatives become part of the social and cultural community of Sfero.me and actively participate in the new economy in the economic circuit, both as consumers and as producers and sellers. But above all as active citizens, who change the society in which they live both through their commitment as volunteers, through their work, and through daily purchases. In this way, starting from many isolated realities, we get to create a large intercommunicating, inclusive national community, which will gradually be able to involve other people, citizens and businesses. Until the new company becomes a majority in the country, which will be the solid foundation for the necessary political change, which is very difficult today, as we live in a fragmented reality with too many unaware people.
Let us remember: the new company is already here among us, but everyone must do their part. The best future awaits us and it depends only on us.
For those interested,
Wednesday 15 June 2022, 9 pm
presentation of the project live on Youtube
Login link:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcC-KHYU0UxMreRZ6G9vblQ
For information and contacts:
https://barterflyfoundation.org/
http://www.sovranitapopolare.it/
Thanks to our Telegram channel you can stay updated on the publication of new articles of Economic Scenarios.
The article Progetto Sfero / Monethica: the new company is already here – Interview with Davide Gionco comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/progetto-sfero-monethics-la-nuova-societa-e-gia-qui-intervista-a-davide-gionco/ on Sat, 28 May 2022 17:27:12 +0000.