THE GAVIOTAS COMMUNITY in South
America is
an extraordinary example of what
can be accomplished
in "real" community !!!
_________________________
The United Nations named the village
a model of sustainable development.
Gabriel Garcia Marquez has called
Paolo Lugari the "inventor of the world."
At the New Mexico workshop, Paolo Lugari will discuss three exciting new developments in Gaviotas:
1) In September Gaviotans will launch
two airships equipped with infrared
to patrol the 36,000 acre forest
that they have planted. The airships will
serve as an early warning system
for fires, provide surveillance 24 hours a
day, and can respond within 15
minutes.
2) Since February, the community
has been totally energy independent - no
longer using diesel fuel. They
generate power with turbine engines fueled
by the aging Carribean pine trees
in their forest. These pines are being
slowly crowded out by the regeneration
of indigenous rainforest.
3) Gaviotans have discovered that
their pine forest can produce twice as
much resin as any other resin-tapping
forest in the world. Tree tappers
normally use sulfuric acid when
making incisions, but Gaviotans use an
enzyme that appears to be beneficial
for the trees. The use of mycorrhiza
fungus on the roots of the trees
may also contribute to their productivity.
A huge mural painting of what Gaviotans
have already accomplished
and their vision for the future.
Note airship in the background.
Paolo Lugari:
the founder of Gaviotas some 30 years ago. About 60 plus years old,
Paolo is a high energy person, very bright and well read in just about
everything from the ancient Greek classics to modern contemporary philosophical
thought.
Gunter Pauli:
A Belgium with a background in economics, Gunter founded
“ZERI” {Zero Emissions Research and Initiative (ZERI.org) some 5 years
ago}. He is about 40 years old, bright, articulate, high energy, speaks
several different languages and often translates for Paolo whose English
is limited.
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Monday 9/9/02 : After a brief introduction
to Paolo and Gunter, the conference started off with a slide show of Gaviotas
located in the eastern plains’ savanna of Columbia, south America.
Gaviotas is literally in the midst of some of the worst guerilla, drug
lord, and paramilitary fighting in Columbia. Yet they have essentially
managed to be untouched by it. The one expellable
offense in Gaviotas community is the possession
of a gun.
(This seemed to be Gaviotas' way
of surviving in the midst of exceeding large amounts of 'mindless' violence
by the drug lords, guerillas', etc. By not having any weapons at
all in their possession, the Gaviotas community was not viewed as being
a threat.)
One of Gaviotas’s
major accomplishments was not only the building of a hospital in such a
remote location, but also the fact that the hospital won praise from Japanese
architects who reviewed it. Unfortunately because the community did
not have a resident surgeon, as per regulations, the government eventually
ruled that the hospital had to be closed down.
Paolo who is very philosophically oriented, such that
at times he would say "This is nothing more practical than a good philosophy";
would tend to give out inspirational thoughts via some striking quotes
at times and/or via renditions of “My father would always say…” .
Example: "It is much better
to have an enthusiastic student, then a depressed Nobel Laureate.”
(For me it was striking and very
interesting to have this philosophical orientation and yet to be so obviously
successful in the very pragmatic creation of this community.)
One key to successful community:
Paolo: My father would always say; "Know all the people in the community.
If the community gets so large that this is no longer possible, it is time
to split off and create a new community."
(What a striking contrast to the
huge population groups most American's now live in and call their 'community'!!)
Gaviotas' governance:
The community's population is comprised mostly of 'very simple' people
(Paolo's comment) with the majority of them being native Indians.
Spanish is definitely a secondary language in Gaviotas. This with
the fact of everyone knowing everyone else makes for simple governance
and decision making such as that which was required in the selection /
creation of the hospital's design. (Yet,
this 'simple' decision making resulted in something creative enough that
it received the high praise of a foreign country's architect.)
Process of success:
(Part of the key here seems to contained within the word "Process".) There
seemed to emerge from different comments after a while, a collective picture
of what makes Gaviotas such a success. Part of the success
is bred by a high degree of personal freedom in the community. No
one "has to" do anything. They are left (and encouraged) to find
that which interests and excites them the most. In conjunction with
everyone knowing everyone else, this also seems to result in a high degree
of personal responsibility.
Paolo a number
of times would present a truncated version of the notation about the composition
of the Chinese charactergram for "crisis" which contains two elements;
one representing "danger", the other representing "opportunity".
Paolo would say that "Crisis leads to opportunity!"
and that the community needs to have a new challenge every 2 or 3 years.
And if one didn't come up by itself, they would create one!
Another related comment was that "In Gaviotas, the
only constant was change."
He also briefly
expressed a believe in something that might be called "communal
intelligence" or "group mind" which
can be achieved through people living together in a high state of mutually
supportive friendship and trust.
Creative, Profitable and Sustainable venture:
Gaviotas pulled off a major financial coup for themselves and one which
has increased their own financial independence while at the same time creating
a definitely increased environment 'sustainability'.
The 1997 Kyoto environment accord created an innovative way for signing
nations to 'decrease' their carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
Instead of actually physically decreasing the carbon emissions of their
industries, the accord allowed them to accomplish the same effect by taking
whatever measures they could that would result in the reduction being accomplished
by increasing the reabsorption of the carbon.
Some Japanese
industries found that it would be significantly cheaper for them to hire
places like Gaviotas to plant new forests to absorb carbon dioxide than
to reduce their own emissions. And this is exactly what happened.
Gaviotas contracted with Japanese industry to replant some 34,000 acres
of the savannah in Columbia with tree cover. Not only did they get
paid for this, but then afterwards the Gaviotans developed a process of
taping the trees for their natural resin which resulted in an even greater
profit from its sale worldwide.
Gaviotas also
built and installed some 50,000 solar waters in Columbia. Paolo
emphasized that innovation is very great in Gaviotas. One aspect
of this seems to that if one person brings forth some new innovation, it
invariably ends up benefiting everyone else in the community via the work
and resulting financial rewards. AND since everyone knows everyone
else in the community, the creative individual is immediately acknowledged
and recognized for his/her contribution. The person feels very good
about themselves. The whole result is a positive cycle of increased
effort and innovation.
Tuesday: There was another 'slide presentation' via CD projection.
Paolo emphasizes the importance of cross disciplinary
educations.
Quotes Carl Sagan to the
effect of:
"The only absolute truth in science
is that there is no absolute truth!"
There is great value in the "Opportunity
to think together."
Repeated emphasis on: "The
importance of an Open Mind."
The first challenge often is to "Unlearn
what we have already learned."
Emphasizing in the community, a "Loving
Democracy!"
Paolo: "Nothing is more unjust
than giving the same solution to different problems."
It is very
important to generate multiple solutions for each individual problem.
Acknowledge the 'opportunity' to disagree.
A new term: "Glocal" (Taken I believe from Hazel Henderson's well known admonition to "Think Globally and act locally.") 'Glocal' is the result of combining global and local.
Part of the Social Success in Gaviotas:
"Telling the truth and supporting each others
dreams."
Paolo: "We
are very free, yet we have few conflicts."
"We have no priests, no police, no governors."
There also seems to be a strong
emphasis on MUSIC
in Gaviotas. There is much musical expression. Paolo:
"If someone takes up a musical instrument,
learns how to play it and joins with others in musical expression, he will
never take up a gun."
(While Paolo emphasized Gaviotas'
social harmony, I inquired a couple of times about how their resolve conflict.
At first he simply tended to gloss over the inquiry with statements like
the one above regarding music and no guns. However he did mention
that recently they did have a major conflict in the community, but didn't
go into any detail. After a break in the conference session
that day, we returned and I brought up the subject again and asked for
more detail about their recent conflict.)
Paolo:
"Some people think that Gaviotas is 'Heaven
on earth.' But that's not exactly true. The people there are
not angels. Its more that perhaps we are half way there.
Regarding conflict: It is important to let people unburden themselves
completely,
as often as they need to."
"Listen
to people. It requires Patience & Tolerance."
Regarding their recent conflict;
Paolo somewhat obtusely at first simply said it involved something like
"desiring your neighbor's wife".
The situation apparently involved 4 people, 2 couples, where there was
some unacknowledged sexual involvement between 2 of the people which the
other 2 didn't know about. Apparently the social/sexual norms in
the savannah region of Columbia (perhaps among the indigenous Indians)
is different from what we in the U.S.A. are brought up with. "Marrying"
is synonomous with free union. There are occassionally 'unfaithful'
actions which are accepted in the union. Paolo's comment, in a soft
tonality (perhaps in deference to knowing of our normal standards), was
that "It was not necessarily bad."
Yet in this particular situation among the 4 people involved ("None of
the couples were actually couples, but they behaved as couples.") there
was some sexual intertwinings among 2 of them which the other 2 didn't
know about.
According to Paolo, the situation was resolved by open talking. "Nothing
can replace eye to eye, face to face contact."
Again he brought up the idea of creating a new community if the current
community's size increases such that it is no longer possible for everyone
to know everyone else.
Money within the community: Financially Gaviotas started off via Paolo donating his own money to the community. (He mentioned that in his prior role of being a consultant to business, he charged "a lot of money" for what he did.) Gaviotas for several years now has been economically independent from 'scrapping along' and external support. The replanting of the savannah's trees and developing the business of exporting the tree's resin has proved to be a boon to the community. It is now a non-profit foundation and is anticipating very shortly an increase in its financial well being. (Apparently they are anticipating getting more tree planting contracts.) The 200 people in the Gaviotas community are officially employees of the community.
Some interesting ideas, reframes
from Paolo:
"Anyone
who works at something they don't like is actually unemployed!"
He emphasizes regarding the university
educational process, "It is so important to
get the universities to teach "uncertainties" as opposed to theories of
certainty."
Paolo sees himself as a "facilitator
of learning".
With regard to the InterNet: "We
have an over abundance of information.
We have a crisis in Creativity!"
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Many of the people in the community are children of the original Gaviotas
members.
(I found this to be a fascinating
comment on the success of the community. Very often intentional communities
in the U.S., experience their children leaving the community for the 'big
cities'.)
Governance: For
the past ten years Gaviotas has run itself. Ironically because of
the guerilla violence and that fact that he is fairly light skinned, Paolo
rarely goes there now. (Fair skinned people, particularly Americans; are
at extreme risk of being kidnapped and either murdered or being
held for ranson.) Paolo several years ago apparently was indeed
kidnapped on his way there. He is a quite a talker and the story
(half way jokingly) goes that he talked so much (philosophically on what
life was all about) that finally the kidnappers released him!
He runs the business office of Gaviotas in Bogota, Columbia's capital.
Paolo: "When I die, I am certain
that Gaviotas will continue, perhaps even better."
Gaviotas is a very participatory community. Their governance
tends towards consensus. They have many meetings. The
high degree of face to face contact and exchanging of multiple ideas promotes
the people's self esteem. And this is particular so when a
person sees his/her idea being taken on by the community as a whole.
It is a positive cycle of innovation and creativity.
Wednesday 9/11/02
Gunter Pauli:
A Belgium with a background in economics, Gunter founded “ZERI” (Zero
emissions Research Institute some 5 years ago). He is about 40 years old,
bright, articulate, high energy, speaks several different languages and
often translates for Paolo whose English is limited.
Gunter spoke for a couple of hours or so on Wednesday morning on his ZERI institute and the work that it does. His own "Do something positive" ecological orientation is a natural compliment to Paolo's work with the Gaviotas community. Gunter spoke of the 5 'kingdoms' of nature: Animal, plant, fungi, bacteria, and virus; and some design principles which flow naturally from an awareness of what ecologically works and what doesn't work via these kingdoms.
1) "Don't eat your own waste."
2) What is a toxic waste product for
one kingdom is a nutrient for another kingdom.
3) The more local the eco-system, the
more efficient the system is. That is the more the eco-system naturally
(& healthily) conducts its circulation of food/waste among the five
kingdoms within a local area, the more efficient the system will be.
He too emphasized the need for "Innovation". Indeed
with regard to new models of business and economic systems, he noted that
the old paradigm involving innovation and
risk is that the greater the innovation present in a project, the greater
risk that project would have. BUT now with the increasingly rapid
changes going on in the world, the reality had shifted... the
New paradigm is "The more innovative the project
is, the less the risk that will be associated with it!"
One way of looking at this is that with the
ongoing and world wide rapid change process in effect, any project which
is not innovative will almost certainly be left behind. That is it
will be at tremendous 'risk'. On the other hand, the greater
the innovation capacity that is present in any given project, the greater
the chance that this project will be able to adapt to ongoing change and
therefore succeed.
Gunter closed with a fascinating story of innovation. It involves the creation of a new 'organic' type of electrical battery created by some Brazilian kids. Ironically these kids (without the bias of too much formal education, which might well tell them this was impossible) have come up with a design of an 'organic' electrical battery which is comprised of waste products from bananas and fish bones. It runs on the electrochemical interaction of potassium (from the bananas) and calcium (from the fish bones) and produces electricity. The information on this will apparently be coming on around November 19th of this year.
Several times
Gunter emphasized the importance of "Perseverance"
in both the creation of community like Gaviotas; and in the development
of new models of conducting business and running economies in such a way
that they are ecologically sound.