The wishing of the many

The wishing of the many

Sitting alone in a hollowed –out stump of a tree in a park as the rain pores down my clothes, taters and rags, trying to get my head down after walking all day; I was always walking and arriving to the same proximity (miles from the point of no return again) and hunkered down in a phone box in the middle of winter on occasions the only distraction a tighten fist holding on to my last forty cents to make a phone call in the morning in the hope of a service provider giving me a leg up and a few kind words. Today I have a nice house, work part time for the homeless cause, but my eyes still grow dim for (The wishing of the many) The homeless plight is indeed complex and in some cases incontrovertible. I am now home and my heart goes out to my homeless brothers and sisters on the streets tonight.

Hello Roger,

welcome to the forums. I have never been homeless but yes my heart goes out to all the young and old who are on the streets.

I dont claim to have the answers i wish i did - i am a service provider and support my homeless clients as best as i can and listen to what they have to say - a lot of the time i find thats all they need is a caring ear and knowing sumone out there really does care.

Hi guys,
long time ago I was "homeless" for just a few days when I lost my money on holiday in Europe & didn't like it -- pissing rain, cold wind, slept in a park pergola. Since then I've continued to be a "very sucessful" part of "society" but now at 49yrs old am very disillusioned. I have money & a house but no "family", no friends, no quality prospects in a shallow, selfish greedy, uncareing Consumer world.

Want to start a "new" village to provide inexpensive housing + self-employment to others like me & the homeless who don't fit in. I have ideas that work in other countries but can't find anyone in Oz who understands.

anyone out there want to discuss the possibilities of a better way of living ??

cheers Ray

for sure Ray - i think its a great idea just what Australia needs - i say bring it on hehehehe

PM me if ya wanna chat

Hi Purple Princess,
clearly Western Society is failing & heading back to Fuedalism where 3% of the population has 98% of the money.

Humans were meant to live in small extended-famly units (called tribes or villages), not mega cities where the individual is insignificant.

No "new" society can exist outside of Western Society as it is all too pervading but Kibbutzim & Mondagon exist as a mini-societies operating with & within that.

When it comes to sucessfull "villages" of modern times, the 2nd biggest is the Kibbutz Movement of Israel -- there are several hundred Kibbutzim each containing between 300 & 4,000 people. Initially, each Kibbutz started with only 20 to 50 people, eventually splitting off 200 people from large ones to start a new settlement once they approached a population at the upper size.
Each Kibbutzim has evolved into one of 3 basic areas of income -- agriculture, tourism or manufacturing. Most are NOT religious entities anymore & 2 have high populations of Australians as permanent citizens.
Many say the idea is dying -- it is certainly decreasing in size due to normal Human greed (I want, I want). This is happening because it is easier to see what the rest of the world has combined with lack of social education to offset this.

The biggest group is the Mondragón Corporation in the Basque Region of Spain. Mondragon was started in 1955 as a single co-operative, to give employment & housing to the poor by a Priest who started ministering to them at the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1937. They started by making illegal copies of heaters & camping stoves, it has expanded & now consists of many legitimate individual co-operatives under a Corporate Headquarters. The downside is that most of the jobs they have today are manufacturing and, while of "average" difficulty in Europe, would be considered quite high-tech in Oz & require some tertiary education.

It integrates the idea of a Co-Operative within Western society using strict, proven & ethical business principles. Today, Mondragon has 80,000+ member workers :eek: in its 205 Spanish and 59 associate co-operatives in other countries including Brazil, USA, England, France, Germany, India, Mexico, Romania, South Africa. These are supported with grants, loans, education at the Mondragón University & management advice.
Read the FAQ & co-op sections http://www.mcc.es/ing/index.asp

If we take the best ideas of these two examples, perhaps using the help of Mondragon for mentoring & advise, we should be able to achieve something better than what exists now. Location would have to be somewhere where land is "inexpensive" -- thinking Tassie or rural Victoria -- high unemployment / homeless, tourist trade.

cheers Ray

Hi Ray. :)

Welcome to the Forums.
I'm glad you posted this topic.
This is an area of interest for me.

Other communities that use similar models to the ones you mentioned are the Tolstoyan/Amish communities albeit based on pacifism/religion not housing.

There is also a movement called the co-housing movement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cohousing

There is a Melbourne chapter that has done a lot of work on the legalities and avoiding legal pitfalls of communal property IIRC.

In my opinion the best way these ventures suceed is by being organic and VERY flexible. For example something like the SEMCO model I think would work very well.


clearly Western Society is failing & heading back to Fuedalism where 3% of the population has 98% of the money.

Only Feudalism? You're such an optimist :D

Regards,
Konstantin

Hi konstantin,
I'll check that out, thanks. Yeah Ricado Semler has done great things once he realized his ego was outta control & settled down -- he would be a great mentor for such a village, might try & catch him when he's next in Oz giving a lecture.

Further info on the theme -- supported by those who are trying to achive this new society ....

Western Society, even for the unemployed (with its Dole payouts & charity) is too easy, almost all people are not willing to accept even a slightly lesser lifestyle to start with. That's why I think that the homeless & immigrants are the best supply of citizens. Only these people have the incentive to curb their selfishness & co-operate for a shared benefit for all.

Seems that everyone comes up against the same problems .... even most people interested in being part of a co-op or "new" society are not educated enough in the realities of such ... Consensus (agreement) is a slow process requiring the education of others in aspects of the subject that they don't have real-world experience in -- be that how to run a factory or office or the pitfalls of letting just anyone into the system.

Unfortunately those I've come across weren't interested in learning anyone else's opinion -- they had their own ideas of what they wanted to do and / or had undeclared selfish agendas. This kills the desire for those few people who actually try (intelligent, educated people), to continue ... settling for living their own way on the edge of existing society -- I know of a few instances of this.

There is a movement all over the Western world to start such villages but most seem to want either a back-to-the-earth hippy-style commune or a fantasy high-tech world like in StarTrek but have no idea of how to go about it.

I have been corresponding with a guy in the US who has a realistic idea & has done much to get there. He owns 2 trailer-parks with mainly low- or social-security-income tenants & has US$2million to start but is trying to raise US$40million to start big with all infrastructure in place first. He also has some fanciful ideas of how the media will embrace this and advertise it well. Despite acknowledging my ideas as excellent & incorporating them into his plan, he has not reciprocated with anything more than very vague information on my questions to him.

cheers Ray

Hi guys,
ah,yes, sounds good for housing only. There is also the Rainbow Power Company at Nimbin, Nthn NSW that mixes housing WITH employment which is what I'm after. I'm too old & over-qualified to get a job up here in the Hillbily state.

Tried contacting Christiania in Denmark but like Kibbutzim etc etc no-one wants to reply.

cheers Ray