March 27, 2016 MGMF Farms

How many years to Eliminate Poverty?

According to my calculations (you can easily check these figures yourself),

there are about 2, 073,902,337 people projected to be below the poverty line by 2030.

Europe will need 13.8 years, assuming we start with 6 pilot New Sharing Villages and each new Village replicates itself once per year. 1898087_985383151551098_8424546300272832030_n

Asia will need 16.8 years, assuming we start with 6 pilot New Sharing Villages and each new Village replicates itself once per year.

North America will need 14.6 years, assuming we start with 6 pilot New Sharing Villages and each new Village replicates itself once per year. 10411921_1719847404922507_579876350266553452_n

South America will need 14.1 years, assuming we start with 6 pilot New Sharing Villages and each new Village replicates itself once per year. 10985179_1705171109745583_5406404027406140438_n

Africa will need 16.8 years, assuming we start with 6 pilot New Sharing Villages and each new Village replicates itself once per year. 11141749_1522356178069568_458916743960269373_n

Oceania will need 12.9 years, assuming we start with 1 pilot New Sharing Village and each new Village replicates itself once per year.

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The average time for all continents in the world is 14.8 years which brings us to 2030.

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March 13, 2016 MGMF Farms

Few Intentional Communities…Why?

Why aren’t there More Intentional Communities?

The idea of forming an Intentional community – to share common ideas, common values, concern for the environment and many other issues – this idea helped in the creation of a number of eco-villages and other small communities throughout the world.

So why didn’t this idea spread and take over across the world instead of the proliferation of big cities and now the Mega cities? Current projects for Urbanization across the world, at the expense of Rural communities show we will likely be at 66% Urban by 2050.

As I see it, there are two possible reasons why the idea of these small, somewhat self-contained communities, has not prospered.

For the first reason, these groups are often too small to grow, they are not sustainable, and must operate within the External Economy for their survival. They need income for outside their community in the form of profit on things they make or wages they earn to sustain the local community as a whole. And this income does not stay in the community when they have allowed external companies, often multinationals to sell in their community and take the profits elsewhere. The very small communities often shrink rather than grow and consequently don’t last very long.

The second reason is related the demographics of the community. Each new Village or community typically needs significant funding to get started. Things like Realtor costs to find suitable property, then purchasing the land, the legal requirements, adherence to zoning bylaws, building codes, health regulations, permits and other financial considerations all take money. Its sort of like taking a Farm and laying a subdivision on top, we end up with waste disposal issues, water requirements, subdividing issues, and eventually have an actual selling price per lot – usually pricey.

As a result of this, the homes usually end up being very expensive. This means they need to be marketed to potential clients who can afford the cost of these homes, to ensure proper growth, meaning even more funding for this marketing. Quite often, the selection process for new members is rigorous, in addition to a settling-in probationary period, to ensure these prospects will fit into this community with it’s values and lifestyle choices having already been established.

Sometimes this ends up in a division or split over time, as ideas about where the community is headed start to diverge or collide. This usually means one group stays and the other goes, thus reducing the size of the community, which causes further problems.

Assuming the community gets off to a good start, there are numerous expenses to contend with as a community. There is local Taxes, security within the community, the costs of maintaining common areas like common kitchens, roads, parks, perhaps a Recreation Centre with Pools, a Gym or Stables.

In some startup communities there may be one or several wealthy members who are able to assist in funding the initial startup. Depending on how this is handled, this may cause friction later on down the road as the initial funder(s) may wish to leave and be compensated for the investment(s) made.

Given all of the funding expenses required in the second reason, it becomes obvious that a significant investment is going to be required. This will exclude the poor and very poor from looking at this solution to their problems, despite the fact that it would, depending on how it was organized, solve many of their Basic Needs, if they were able to share locally, rather than contend with the external economy.

So, in summary, the communities we are discussing here are often either small and underfunded, or of a workable size but expensive and selective for potential members. I wonder if there should be some other option that lets the community grow, has a low barrier to entry, and much less bureaucratic, logistic and legal work to get it started.

Do you think people could live together in a community where Everything was Shared, but everything remained inside the community – that is to say – a sustainable, self-contained community?

(By Phil Lloyd Jan, 2016)

March 13, 2016 MGMF Farms

Family

My husband stays home and looks after the kids, while I go to work at the WC.

We moved here at the end of last year and was that ever a huge change for us. Besides a new school for the kids, my work here and getting to know all the neighbours, we had to learn how the Assembly worked, where and how to arrange for food and drinking water, and then there was the VS and how it worked.

I make bowls, plates, cups, mugs, pots, vases and just about anything else you can image from clay. There are four of us working in a small section of the WC and I guess it gets pretty noisy there since we all love to talk as we work. I learned how to make clay pottery at my father’s store. He sold all kinds neat artistic, one-of-a-kinds and a huge variety of crafts. He helped me get started, what tools I needed, where to get the various kinds of clay I use, how to ‘fire’ the Greenware, and what prices to charge for the final products.

We now live in a small Village where there are about 600 people. I am told when it reaches 1,200 they will stop adding new members, though.

Our three children really like their new school, but from time to time, I hear them complain about the lack of books and paper like what they had at their old school. I guess as our Village grows, we will have more workers and I hope they will make lots of paper so we can have the books the kids want. Or maybe I should learn how to do it…

My husband Jake has started to make a small vegetable garden on part of the land where our house is being built. We live in a bunk house now, but that will change in four months when our new house is finished. Jake has planted some fruit trees and vegetables that are not available at the Village Farm, so we can enjoy more variety of foods. We all love to visit the Commons where there are some fruit and nut trees growing. We are allowed to pick a few, but not too much because everyone here in our Village must share.

This was probably the most difficult adjustment our family had to make. We were used to just taking the little cash we had, going to the market and buying what we could afford to buy, it was tough. Now we had to learn to share. Not just share, but share with everyone else in our Village. What a change!

Another thing that was hard to adjust to was no cars, no vehicles of any kind are allowed inside our Village. Not that we ever had a car, being as poor as we always were. But it is so quiet now. I guess you get used to the constant sound of traffic, no matter were you live.

Sometimes I wished I worked on the Farm which is part of our Village. It is so satisfying to see the crops you have planted grow, day by day, and then there is the harvest. I think the best part is seeing all the fresh fruit and vegetables being wrapping for delivery to everyone in the Village for their enjoyment.

I wonder if maybe I should take an evening course on vegetable production instead of paper-making. That way I could help Jake with the garden after we move and then I could deliver our fresh vegetables directly to our table and begin sharing with our neighbours – they have been so generous to us so far.

Our Basic Needs are met here in the Village, and surprisingly we do not miss TV as much as we thought we would. At the old place we used to have a small TV and antenna and watched a lot, especially when we had no work. One of our neighbours there showed us how to jumper the electrical wires to get it free. It was only a small amount, but at least we had a couple of lights and the TV, so we were pretty happy with this arrangement.

I was really surprised the first time our delivery came from the Farm. There was no bill, no payment, no bartering, no exchange, just sharing, just as we had been told. I felt a similar feeling when I delivered some of the products I made to the other Villagers, according to the Needs List. For new members it was like the most unexpected gift they had ever received. To others who had been there for a while, they were surprised to meet me and would usually compliment me on the unusual designs and unique products I had created.

I have to get ready for work now, but maybe when I get back I will tell you more about our life here in the New Sharing Village, if you are interested.

(By Phil Lloyd Jan, 2016)

March 8, 2016March 17, 2016 MGMF Farms

One Hope Left – the poor

Am I the only one that thinks there are issues, world issues that have been ongoing for too long? My attached Graphic highlights most of them. Who Will Stop The

We all know these things.

Individually we do very little. Recycling our own personal waste stream will not stop the pollution of our air, land and water.

Electing good leaders will not stop or prevent wars or terrorism.

Unless changes are made, what we have today will continue and only get worse – poverty, the rich/poor gap, loss of Diversity, global warming….

Current projects indicate almost half the world’s population will be located in Africa by 2010, quadrupling in that time period.

Those who profess to be concerned or worried about these issues Fly from Seminar to Conference; from Awareness Group to Planning Session; from Strategy Event to Conference, filling rooms full with Reports, Proposals, Strategic Analyses, Proceedings, Agendas, Surveys, Guides and the like in their wake.

These people are not and will not make any difference.

It is up to you and me.

If everyone, one day, decided no more wars, put down their weapons, we would have leaders with causes but no action. ¹

If everyone, one day, decided all of the land on the planet belonged to everyone, to be shared equally, we would see so many changes – the rich poor gap would disappear, loss of diversity would stop and maybe even reverse, pollution of the land, water and air as well as global warming would abate.

If everyone, one day, decided ‘Profit’ would be replaced with ‘Sharing’, poverty and unemployment would disappear, governments would be reduced to simple decision-making, Society would improve, and our food supply would not only improve but we would all become healthier at the same time.

But, of course, this kind of thinking is pure fantasy. We are well past the “a little tweak here”, and “a small change there” to fix these things now. And no one is going to cause a world revolution to change them either.

So what is to be done?

I have read extensively on the topic, discussed numerous ideas with friends and associates, created dozens and dozens of computer models, tested various strategies, and finally settled on this ‘One Hope Left – the poor’.

Here’s the explanation of why….

If we improve conditions for the poor, they prosper. As their lot improves, they find hope, opportunity and being the second largest segment of the world’s population, will carry the balance of the world along with them as they progress. The largest segment – the ‘inbetweens’, are too busy trying to earn a living to be able to change very much.

So that’s it, just ‘help the poor to help themselves’.

How you ask?

I have broken the work down into five Steps:

Step 1) Give the poor Land. A ‘Sharing Zone’ with no rules, no conditions, no taxes (the poor don’t pay any now, in fact many get a refund when they do file), no land-use resrtrictions, etc.

Step 2) Use the 4 S’s (Small, Simple, Sustainable and Sharing) as Guidelines or Principles in the planning, design and development of their new Village.

Step 3) Help the poor build. Train them in Natural Farming techniques to grow their own food. Help them make their own ‘Needs’, generate their own energy, make their own tools, apparel, household items, in their own 100% Sharing, Small, Sustainable community.

Step 4) Then let them Replicate this process, each Village creating one new Village about once every year, until world poverty is eradicated (in approximately 15 years).

Step 5) This is the final step that carries the process forward to the remaining population (the ‘not poor’). This should take no more than two years after Step 4 is completed, and is the remedy for the rest of us.

Each of these steps are detailed in subsequent articles following this one. As each Step is completed, the Step above will be linked to it.

Also, please check out our web site at http://www.VillagesASimpleSolution.com

Starting in 1965, Canada became a choice haven for American draft dodgers and deserters. Because they were not formally classified as refugees but were admitted as immigrants, there is no official estimate of how many draft dodgers and deserters were admitted to Canada during the Vietnam War. One informed estimate puts their number between 30,000 and 40,000. Whether or not this estimate is accurate, the fact remains that emigration from the United States was high as long as America was involved militarily in the war and maintained compulsory military service; in 1971 and 1972 Canada received more immigrants from the United States than from any other country. Estimates of the total number of American citizens who moved to Canada due to their opposition to the war range from 50,000 to 125,000.