37. WHAT IS A COMMUNITY?

So much has happened lately, it is all a bit overwhelming. Firstly Riaan is off to the Transkei, he is planning on hosting walking trails along the coast there. The walking and bird watching trails we originally wanted to do, will not work from KD, some of the members have issues with "strangers" on the property. 

Riaan and the Nguni's on the beach at Kei Mouth

Then there was the incident of the house brake at Fabian and Nicole’s “new” house. It must have been a devastating experience, I mean you move to a new place in a different country and one of the first things that happen is – you get robbed. This is rather unsettling for everybody living here, we are obviously being watched. Once again, like it or not, we are still part of planet earth and we are surrounded by poor and desperate people. This is not an excuse for stealing, but it remains one of the reasons why people steel, bottom line; they need money. 

Rural living

At the moment I am not sure about anything. I would love to stay on and partake in the EDE (Eco community Design Education) workshop and get a license and plant some hemp, but we will then also need to built our own place and we are not quite ready for this, in more than one way. The best thing to do right now, is to focus on the garden and learn as much as possible. We will take a fresh look at all thing in the New Year.

It is funny how dynamics can shift by just adding new people to a mix...

What exactly is an Eco Community? The answer to this question will vary, depending whom you ask. One would surely expect it to have at least organic gardens, actually more towards perma culture, simply because it is a total system of using your own waste and creating abundance and self sufficiency. Then there is normally some sort of spiritual base, this can vary from Rastafarian to Buddhist to “earth religions” and some focus on healing. 

The third aspect of every community is the structure. Who’s who in the zoo, so to speak.  I say this because one of the biggest flaws in the current systems in the big wide world out there is that they are all pyramid systems.  There is always a boss and the underlings and then the underlings to the underlings and so it goes on, down the pyramid, it is in our schooling system, that system where parents are forces, by law to allow the state to kidnap their children and “educate” them.

What about self governing?  This concept seems to completely evade some people, they seem to think it totally impossible, but then what can you expect, we as a species has been living under/in a pyramid system for the last  4 000 year at least, so we know nothing else.

The reporters (not Journalists, because try report what they are told to) was very baffled by the fact that the Occupy movement does not have a leader or leaders. I like their thinking, you use the best people for the job at hand at the time and then those people step back, that way you always have the best people doing the right job and making the decisions. We will have to wait and see how this all plays out, but at least some see the flaw with this whole pyramid thing.

Maybe it is time to create something completely different? Where it does not feel like some people are just trying creating their own little "kingdom"?