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AND TO
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WE'RE HERE
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WELCOME to the first web
issue of Coffeehouse Culture.
With a little help from the pixels
at the bottom of our garden, we
have finally made it. And this
time around we are going to do it
better. This time around? In case
you do not know, Coffeehouse
Culture started its life as a paper
publication produced in Amster-
dam. One issue was produced
and 15,000 copies were distribut-
ed in Amsterdam and the UK.
Many of them are now probably
lining cat litters in both places.
This, however, is not a paper
publication (touch your screen if
you do not believe us.) Nor is it
totally the same as the paper
version. Some stories have been
left out because of new material.
(All the new stuff is flagged so
you know what is what.) And in-
evitably there have been changes
in the format and layout. For all
the changes, we have tried to
retain the overall 'feel' of the
paper version.
This is a marriage of a paper
publication to a new medium.
Something old, something new,
something borrowed, something
brown. And there you have Coff-
eehouse Culture. But, and it is a
big 'but', this is the web. You
know that extraordinary-interact-
ive-multimedia-all-bells-and-
whistles thingy. Not much of that
here, we're afraid. Coffeehouse

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It has been a long time since public feeling ran high enough in the
States to get people onto the streets and making enough noise to attract
world wide media interest. But the protests in Seattle designed to
disrupt the World Trade Organisation meeting during the last week in
November did just that. But, as usual, the straight media focused on all
the wrong things, missing completely the real significance of more than
50,000 people protesting about a global issue rather than a national or
personal one.
There has never been a protest quite this one. The meeting of the
World Trade Organisation provided a focus for the various
dissatisfactions of all those who can see the global economy turning the
world into little more than a profit centre. Full-blown anarchists
marched alongside assorted environmentalists and animal and human
rights activists but that didn't matter because they were all protesting
about the same thing. And what exactly was that?
There have been few issues as disturbing in recent decades as the
sharp decline in social values. As society has become increasingly
commercial, the traditional social values that made for civilisation have
become eroded. This has resulted in a dehumanisation of the world
and its resources. Reflected in a lack of common humanity, a decline
in ethical values and a debasement of the minimum accepted standards
for civilised societies, it is this dehumanisation that was the subject for
the protests in Seattle and elsewhere. For the majority of people in
western societies who have been witness to the decline in social
standards but have been unable to see any clear focus for protest, the
events in Seattle offer some hope.
And, for the several million readers of 'The Celestine Prophesy',
perhaps a little more than hope. In his bestseller, author James Redfield
describes a series of changes in social attitude which mark a move-
ment away from dehumanisation towards life at a higher level. As the
basis for his predictions, Redfield accurately describes a slow spiritual
awakening, reflected in an ill-defined 'restlessness', starting in the
1960s and, he says, reaching fulfilment at the end of the century.
Although his time scale might be a little out, it is evident that such an
awakening is taking place.
In many ways, the Seattle protests could be seen as providing a cert-
ain vindication of Redfield's prophesy.
James Redfield, of course, in not alone in predicting major changes as
the new millennium draws on. Many pundits, ancient and modern,
predict tempestuous times for the world over the coming decades.
BACK TO TOP

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Tony Blair's New Labour Government needs money.
Committed to sticking to the Tories' spending plans and
with a whole lot of expensive new measures of its own
in hand, 'New' Labour has real money problems.
However, a solution is at hand. As Coffeehouse Culture
reveals in its lead Cannabisness story (see 'Let the Good Times
Roll', page 4), the UK has a new and vibrant growth industry
that could easily produce the necessary funds to secure the
already faltering reputation of Tony Blair's government. With
these funds, Blair would no longer find it necessary to tighten
the screws on the poverty-stricken to support the health
service, education changes and other measures that have been
'promised'.
The potential money-spinner for the UK Government is the