TRAVEL JOURNALS

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

I remember being told when I was just a little kid that one of these days your whole life will suddenly flash before your eyes. I decided there and then that I was going to make sure that it was well worth watching!

I also recall from one of my classes at the university that in order for a happening or situation to become a living adventure you somewhere down the line have to recount it. Where I was born, where I lived, and where I have been is probably not too important. But what I have done with all the time and all the collected information of my lifetime probably should be of interest. Steve Jobs of Apple fame used to say that the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do it. I believe that Project C.U.R.E. has, indeed, changed its world.

From the very beginning of Project C.U.R.E., I felt impressed . . . almost like a thumb in my back . . . to try to capture the story and document the facts by keeping a careful and faithful journal of the endeavors of Project C.U.R.E. I felt compelled to write down the chronological flow of events while in motion so that the indisputable miracles would be substantiated by written narrative and photographic evidence of the times, and not reconstructed later by relying on lukewarm memory and salvaged bits of souvenirs.

I asked for help from God with the task and he has been faithful to me with the journal-keeping from the beginning until about 2008, when it was required of me to stop the pace of international travel. I have spent hundreds of hours on airplanes, boats, trains, helicopters, and in the strangest of places around the world, writing down words on computer keyboards and pads of paper. Those writings documented the names of places, people, and descriptions of events that permanently recorded the fascinating phenomenon of Project C.U.R.E. It became commonplace to find myself writing while stranded in a cheap hotel in Da Nang, Vietnam, with the ravaging flood waters preventing me from even leaving the building, or to still be writing down words in the darkest African night while sitting in my tent in the heart of Tanzania, a pen in one hand and a flickering oil lantern in the other hand.

Before the start of each trip, I would pray specifically that God would give me wisdom and favor: favor with the people where I would be working in the foreign locations, and wisdom from God to be at the right place at the right time saying the right things to the right people.

In places like North Korea, Cuba, northern Pakistan, Afghanistan, Beirut, or Iraq, I would have to be careful and hide my writings in my belongings so that my written observations would not be discovered during searches of my bags and held against me as spy material. I had to be equally careful with respect to the thousands of photographs which I have taken in my attempts to further substantiate my written findings.

It was my goal to have each journal entry finished in narrative form by the time the landing wheels of the passenger jet touched the tarmac of Denver’s airport. If I allowed one day lapse before I had written it all down, I would lose some of the sharp details of the trip. So, on long international flights, I would be the guy at night in the economy section with the cabin light on trying to finish my assignment.

Now we are preparing to publish all twenty-five years’ of narrative travel journals. It is going to be a huge endeavor, and will necessitate several volumes. This will be as close to the actual accounting of the history of Project C.U.R.E. available anywhere. Reading these original, un-cut journals will allow my friends to travel with me to thousands of locations worldwide and be a part of the philosophical and logistical development of the first quarter-century of the organization.

I have written books and articles based on stories from the travel journals, but none of those writings can give the progressive description of what was happening with Project C.U.R.E. on this side of the oceans as well as internationally. I can think of no better way to share so completely with my friends the thrill, heartbreak, frustration, and triumphs of the incredible global work of Project C.U.R.E. I’m delighted and honored that you’ve chosen to join me on this educational journey .  

Next Week: An explanation as to how this journal introduction will work. 

© Dr. James W. Jackson   

Permissions granted by Winston-Crown Publishing House

  

www.jameswjackson.com      

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com

ONWARD

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

For the past many months I have closed out each blog with the same simple phrase:
         (Research ideas from Dr. Jackson’s new writing project on Cultural Economics).

Well, it is now time to close the research books and get on with the project and the production of the book. The subject matter of the book will be the result of combining the discipline of economics with the practicality of Real Life 101. I think the title will have something to do with the idea of “Better-Off.”

Books come into being for a number of different reasons and through a number of different methods. Some books move through the birthing process over a rather concise and calculated gestation period. Some are hatched. Others are products of a metamorphosis from worm to cocoon to butterfly. When born, some are quite unattractive, some are pleasant to behold, and others are downright stunning!

All authors intuitively know that their works are destined to be award winners. And they probably would be right, were it not for the muddled thinking of the reviewers and the unreasonableness of the public: They just never got my point. But books of all sorts continue to be produced.

Over the months I have tried to utilize the blog-posting process to launch some of the observations, responses, and conclusions I have encountered over the past forty-plus years and the millions of miles traveled to more than 150 countries. I have greatly appreciated and depended on your responses and interaction to help me determine direction and fields of interest.

I am so appreciative of Winston Crown Publishing House and its willingness to run my blogs each Tuesday morning for the past nearly five years. I also greatly appreciate the folks there having published my last four books, of which three received first place gold EVVY Awards, and one received a bronze award. They will also be the organization publishing the new cultural economics book.

Next Week: We will be sharing with you the exciting new direction for the weekly blogs of the near future. Thanks for joining me each week. Thanks for being my friends!

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com

BETTER-OFF: CONCLUSION

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

Adam Smith is a hero to me because I see him as the first cultural economist. He was the first to note the curious connection between private interests and cultural interests. Individuals and businesses seeking to advance their own self-interests, and operating within the structure of a highly competitive market system, would miraculously promote the cultural best interest as well as the economic best interest at the same time. It began to prove out that as the individuals and businesses were allowed the freedom to choose their own options as to what they felt would be best for them, lo and behold, all the people of the culture began ending up better off. That was definitely an unintended consequence, but a welcomed and marvelous happening.

As we learned earlier, Adam Smith explained this simultaneous phenomenon as being guided by an invisible hand. We even see it in action today as businesses seek to build new and improved products to increase profits. Those enhanced products, like computer applications, smart phones, and industrial robots, increase the culture’s well-being. Those businesses use the least costly combination of natural and human resources because in doing so it is in their own best interests. To do otherwise would put their enterprises in jeopardy. But the company’s use of scarce resources in the most cost-effective ways benefits the culture as a whole, and frees up precious resources to produce even additional goods and services that the culture wants.

We have discovered that self-interest is different than greed. The freedom to pursue self- interest becomes the greatest method known to mankind to manage the billions and billions of individual small decisions of people seeking to better employ their resources and labor in ways other people find helpful. The socialist’s government model of centralized decision making could never come even close to determining the most correct and efficient answer to the billions of everyday decisions open to individuals and cultures.

The leaders of the fresh, new American experiment of 1776 seemed to get an intuitive glance into the possibilities of liberty and free enterprise, even though a lot of the good results were admittedly unintended and were only realized as the experiment unfolded over time.

The new Americans were God fearing and were determined to acknowledge and honor the principles of his economic system as well as principles of kindness, justice, and righteousness in their culture and adopted economy. And, over time, their traditions, institutions, and dreams for the future began to materialize. As they were free to pursue the free enterprise model, they began to experience true freedom for themselves:

· Built- in Efficiency: The new economic system encouraged the efficient use of resources and guided the new Americans into production of goods and services most wanted and needed by the citizens. They were encouraged to develop and adopt the most efficient techniques in utilizing their resources for production and consumption in the new country.

· Built- in Incentives: The free enterprise economic system promoted the acquisition of new skills and trades, gave people reason to work hard and be frugal in their lifestyles, and made it profitable for them to be innovative in solving their cultural and economic challenges. By assuming calculated risks and being innovative, they began to realize higher incomes and the creation of new opportunities of employment for fellow citizens. Many times the reward for those advances translated into higher standards of living.

· Built- in Freedom: The major reward for the pursuit of the free enterprise system flowing from the experiment of 1776 was the realization of personal freedom. The alternative economic systems of centralized government lacked in efficiency, incentives, and most of all freedom. The new system emboldened economic activity without coercion or undue interference, subject only to the penalties and rewards built into the economic system itself.

The unintended consequences set into motion as a result of the determined pursuit of freedom of economic and cultural choice were nothing less than astounding. Nothing else compares historically with the results of the American experiment of 1776. The system thrives on freedom and liberty. The multitudes of quiet and persistent cultural and economic entrepreneurs flowing out from that experiment have absolutely altered the history of this world.

The chances of the experiment ever happening again are very slim, indeed. It will never happen again the same way, for certain. But even were the restart button ever to be pushed again in the future, and we are slammed back into the dark ages, desperately groping for a new period of enlightenment, there is verifiable evidence recorded in history that once upon a time there lived upon the face of the planet earth a people whose hearts burned within them to experience a cultural and economic phenomenon. Here the people were willing to pay the price of personal responsibility to cultivate with kindness, justice, and righteousness an economic and cultural system that honored liberty and freedom and personal integrity.

As for the rest of my own life, I fully intend to spend all my energies and creativity for as many days as I have left, on countering the wrong headed thinking of those individuals who would gladly trade the security, growth, and sustainability of the free enterprise economic system for a short-term rush of political expediency through deficit spending, vote buying, and economic redistribution. I want to expand our economic thinking into the possibilities of abundance, choice, and accomplishment, rather than the fear driven model of scarcity, choice, and cost. I want to cast my lot with those who believe that our brightest days are just ahead as we whole-heartedly pursue the secrets of the riches that are yet unknown to us but there for our discovery and use on this earth.

But whatever happens in the future, I choose, as other thankful citizens have chosen,to pledge my allegiance to the grand and glorious experiment of 1776, and to honor those who stood for what they believed and lived to experience the extravagant results and even the goodness of the unintended consequences. We actually had the occasion to experience a cultural and economic life where we were all . . . Better-Off.

       (Research ideas from Dr. Jackson’s new writing project on Cultural Economics) 

© Dr. James W. Jackson   

Permissions granted by Winston-Crown Publishing House

www.jameswjackson.com  

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com

BETTER-OFF: UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

It was an improbable experiment that took place in 1776 starting in Philadelphia with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Seldom, if ever, had there been a nation-building endeavor organized on such uncommon denominators. The steadfast incorporators had declared liberty, and were determined to experience the fullness of freedom. But in reality they could scarcely even comprehend the world-altering power they were holding in their hands.

They had dreamed that they would know enough freedom to be able to experience the new and enticing system of free enterprise. But they discovered that it was in the dedicated pursuit of free enterprise that they found the fullness of freedom. It was an unintended consequence to find that the most precious thing provided by a free enterprise economy was not just the abundance of material wealth, but freedom itself.

The incorporators were bent on preserving their newly acquired liberty, improving the well-being of the new nation, and guaranteeing the wise use of their resources. They knew that their only hope was through the understanding and preservation of not only their coveted culture, but also through their development of a stable economy.

The historical serendipity of the 1776 experiment was in the fact that not only was it the year of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, but 1776 was also the year of the publishing of the Scottish economist Adam Smith’s book, An Inquiry Into The Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. The book was a compilation of Adam Smith’s observations as he traveled and sought the answer to what causes one nation to be rich and another nation to be poor.

Adam Smith equated wealth with income and the ability to generate income. His findings showed that a nation that can generate high levels of income is wealthy, and one that is capable only of low levels of income is poor. What is it that allows a nation to create a high level of income? What is it that makes a nation wealthy? In his book he simply recorded his observations. He commented then on such unique observations as division of labor, specialization, incentives, levels of taxation, freedom of cultural and economic choice, and the opportunity to pursue the objectives and directions that are of most interest to each individual.

The incorporators of the 1776 American experiment had been greatly influenced by the observations of Adam Smith. His insights fit snugly with their ideals of independence, self-reliance, and limited government that was responsible to the people rather than the people being enslaved by the government. But what neither Adam Smith nor the young American leaders comprehended was what would be the history-making results, when for the first time those ideals could be worked out in real life, in a situation where it was possible for free enterprise to not just be haltingly tolerated, but encouraged to flourish. Since a national economic system of free enterprise had never really been tried in such laissez-faire settings, no one could fully predict the potency of the economic outcome.

The leaders of the new nation had a deep respect for the rule of law, and realized the unique necessity for a limited government to fully enforce the powers of the law. One of the basic concepts of free enterprise is that the individual citizen has the right to hold and own private property. With that goes the right to exclusively make use of the property or to transfer it to another individual of one’s choice. People are free to make voluntary agreements with each other regarding their private property or personal labor. Contracts, therefore, are vital to the enterprise system.

Contracts and agreements, however, are meaningless unless they are enforced. Free enterprise could not exist without a legal entity to hold contract makers to their agreements. So, without a viable government to enforce agreements there could be no contracts, and without contracts there could be no free enterprise.

In addition, property rights, including intellectual property through copyrights, patents, or trademarks, work to facilitate those transfers and exchanges within the system. Because of the long-term protection of the rights, people are encouraged to write more books and music. The title to a piece of farm equipment, or an indentured deed to a plot of ground, assures the buyer that the seller is the legitimate owner. The right of property owners to designate who will receive their property when they die helps sustain the confidence in those property rights. Those are all subtle benefits of the free enterprise system. Those benefits were not necessarily designed and plugged into the free enterprise system before it was formalized.

On the consumer side of the equation, free enterprise ensures purchasers they can buy the goods and services that best satisfy their wants and agree with their budgets. And workers are free to try to enter any line of work for which they are qualified. All of those benefits came as unintended consequences of the pursuit of freedom of choice.

Next Week: Better-Off Conclusion

             (Research ideas from Dr. Jackson’s new writings project on Cultural Economics) 

© Dr. James W. Jackson   

Permissions granted by Winston-Crown Publishing House

  

www.jameswjackson.com 

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com