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From: Alan Weisman
To: readers of Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World
First, my apologies if you get this more than once; I've tried to save
addresses of all who've kindly written me about the Gaviotas book, a process
that has transcended a couple of email programs, with repetitions unavoidably
occurring. As I am sending this to large clumps of recipients at a
time, if you want to respond, please take care not to reply to everyone.
At any rate, most inquiries will be better answered by others whom I
note below.
This brief update will, I hope, address some questions I receive regularly
about how Gaviotas is faring amidst the brutal Colombian civil war; about how
to keep abreast of developments there; and, at long last, about how to
acquire some of the Gaviotas tools. But first: The organizers of an
event that is bringing Gaviotas founder Paolo Lugari to the U.S.A. this
fall have asked me to please pass along the following, which I do with
pleasure (apologies again to recipients on other continents). The two
links immediately after their announcement explain it all quickly and
clearly, and I applaud their fine efforts to arrange Paolo's appearance.
Given the dates involved, the inherent symbolism of this occasion feels most
apt:
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Dear Friends:
You are invited to a special gathering on the eve on September 11.
Paolo Lugari, founder of Gaviotas, and Gunter Pauli, of the Zero
Emissions Research Initiative, will lead a "Dialogue on Innovation and
Perseverance" based on the story of Gaviotas, a remarkable village
(population 200) in Colombia.
This event was originally scheduled at the Omega Institute, but will now be
held on September 9 - 11 at the Ghost Ranch conference center in New Mexico.
Gaviotas is an oasis of peace amidst the violence in Colombia.
Engineers, artists, peasants and former street kids have come together
in a barren savannah and accomplished the extraordinary. They have:
- achieved energy self-sufficiency
- established sustainable industries such as a zero emission resin- making
factory,
- created a hospital and medicinal plant research center
- reforested 36,000 acres and reintroduced biodiversity
- governed themselves with remarkable equanimity.
How did they defy the limits of the possible? How can we do the same?
Come join us in exploring a path of hope.
Please forward this invitation to anyone else who may be interested.
Gaviotas:
http://www.urbanecology.org/gaviotas/about.htm
Workshop:
http://www.urbanecology.org/gaviotas/2002workshop.htm
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As I've explained to many who've written recently, Gaviotas somehow has
miraculously forged on through this terrible chapter of Colombian history,
but it has been difficult and often plain harrowing. With the country's
economy often nearly paralyzed, along with the rest of Colombians Gaviotas
has struggled mightily to survive, and some of the plans outlined at the end
of my book, especially concerning Gaviotas's expansion, necessarily remain on
hold. There has been much bloodshed in the eastern savannas; both
paramilitaries and guerrillas abound there and Gaviotas vehicles are routinely
stopped at roadblocks where combatants of all stripe demand tribute
(sometimes the vehicles themselves) as war taxes. Civilians have been
massacred in the area, gunfire is frequently audible from the village, and
fighting has taken place in the Gaviotas forest. As I've regretfully
told several of you who've expressed a desire to visit, Gaviotas has had to
request that foreigners stay away: Americans and Europeans are lucrative
kidnap targets to the aforementioned combatants (Colombia lately leads the world
in kidnapping) and their presence would make Gaviotas all the more
vulnerable. For that same reason, they've tried to maintain as low a
profile as possible; hence, no website. This, of course, has frustrated
many who've requested access to information and Gaviotas technology, but the
concern is real, and lethally justifiable: Over the past few years, hundreds
of innocent citizens, civil servants, journalists, officials, candidates,
politicians, and human rights advocates have been assassinated in Colombia.
However, both the above link and the Zero Emissions Research Initiative site
at www.zeri.org are now posting Gaviotas information, links, photographs, and
updates. The sites are cooperating in this effort, so stay tuned to
them. The ZERI site also has plans to post some of the appropriate
technology referred to in my bibliography but heretofore unavailable in
English. And, at a recent meeting I attended with ZERI director and
longtime Gaviotas collaborator Gunter Pauli, I was also pleased to learn that
a company from Boulder, Colorado, The Sustainable Village, will soon be
carrying Gaviotas tools in their ample catalogue. You can contact them for
further information: www.thesustainablevillage.com.
Since writing Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World, I'm grateful to have
been invited to dozens of places in the U.S. and beyond --including numerous
colleges, universities, and secondary schools that use the book in their
classes -- to show pictures and to speak about this remarkable place. Gaviotas
not only shows us how to live right and well, but how to do so in the face of
mounting dark forces that seem poised to overwhelm -- not just them, but
everyone. As I'm confident Paolo will describe during his visit, even
against the terrors and odds I note above, Gaviotas has managed to persist in
imaginatively tweaking whatever resources or situations they find at hand,
all to the good. In these trying times, I'm hard pressed to imagine a
better example for the rest of us to follow.
My warmest regards to all. With hope,
Alan Weisman
GAVIOTAS + GLOBALIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS + WORLD SUMMIT ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT + GLOBAL WARMING
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