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Time Banks Around The World
The Time Bank experience, and even more that of alternative or complementary currencies, has spread all over the world in recent years. (For a global overview of the various experiences of local currencies visit Appropriate Economics and Complementary Currency).
Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Kenya and Cameroon are African countries where the experience of community exchange is deeply rooted, taking the English LETS schemes as a model.
In South Africa the South African New Economics Network activated a system of community exchange based on either mutual bartering of time and goods, or on the use of complementary money that can even be exchanged online.
Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Papua New Guinea, The Philippines and Thailand are some of the countries in Asia that see the local currencies as a valid part of the traditional economy.
The local currencies of Papua New Guinea present a particularly interesting example to amply demonstrate the concept of New Traditional Economy.
In Thailand the first project to introduce the system of local money is called Bia Kud Chum and was introduced thanks to the input of experience of activists from Mexico and the US. Kud Chum aims to promote local production as an alternative to imported goods, to reduce the hemorrhage of national currency from the community and to revive the local tradition of reciprocal bartering. Along the same lines one can find in Bali the ancient Uang Kepeng.
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, in fact, practically the whole of South America is aware of the issues of exchange as an alternative to the conventional economy.
In Brazil one of the most progressive experiences is the Instituto Strohalm de Desenvolvimento Integral, which promotes a series of different methodologies as an alternative to traditional currency exchange: ranging from Fair Trade commerce to bartering between businesses based on an autonomous internal solvency, which is inspired by the Turkish experience Turkbarter, or by the various variations on the concept of local currency (Valor Local Circulante, or VLC; Bônus de Fomento; Sistema de Circulante Comunitário Controlado - SCCC). For a point-by-point description of the local exchange methods promoted by the Brazilian institute, visit http://www.instrodi.org/pt/1081974184718.html.
(16/06/2006)
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