Team:Website
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This is the Team page for The Gaia Community website.
Contents |
[edit] Website content
[edit] Overview
- Cooperative and egalitarian
- First settlement will be experimental
- Fully sustainable and highly self-sufficient
- Free from trade, money or employment
- Free from bureaucracy and policing
- Free from authority structures
- Legally owned in equal shares by all members
- Built by members and financed entirely with the single and lifetime membership fees
- Emphasis in simple living, health and community values
[edit] Reasons for living in a Gaia Community
- Providing for future generations with a free, healthy and secure environment
- Social sustainability through equality, peace, respect and tolerance
- Plenty of time and resources for self-development and pursuit of personal interests
- Environmental responsibility and harmony with Nature
[edit] Characteristics of the Gaia Community
[edit] Values and Principles of the Gaia Community
- The humans species is an active part of the Earth; the Earth cannot be owned
- Environmental sustainability is of utmost importance, only superseded by inhabitants' basic survival requirements
- Social contributions arise from self-motivation, on a voluntary basis
- Members are considered equals in every sense, except for the following:
- Dependants require permission of their carers for engaging on novel actions
- Members require authorisation and/or specific skills/training for accessing scarce and/or dangerous resources from the specific resource's custodian(s)
- Members may voluntarily grant authority to other members for specific purposes (e.g. medical treatment, coaching, teaching)
- Respect and tolerance for differences in ways of reasoning, ways in making meaning of reality, likes and dislikes, and values and principes
- Sound empirical research conducted by the most relevant authorities in relevant field(s) is the basis for communal decisions involving using of resources, with the exception of very special scenarios
- Automation of anything that can be automated
- The pursuit of making this lifestyle available to others who request it, provided a community has achieved stability
- Whilst abiding local laws and regulations, Gaians ultimately recognise no boundaries, seeing Gaia as an undivided single entity
- Gaians are to purchase resources for settling only, and rely mostly on sustainable local resources from then on
- Gaia Communities are to share their surplus resources with any other Gaia Communities who may benefit from them, without expectations for anything in exchange
[edit] Advantages and benefits of this lifestyle
- Zero cost of living
- Physical and emotional health (e.g. organic food, stress-free environment)
- Abundant time and resources for fulfilling everyone's particular interests (e.g. art, studies, technical, scientific, intellectual, physical, spiritual)
- Great environment for developing creative skills
- Satisfaction of emotional and self-esteem needs
- A University campus-like lifestyle
- A general spirit of love and care
- Rich environment for self development in any areas (body, mind, spirit)
[edit] Costs and requirements for migrating to our community
- Gaia communities organise as cooperatives, with a one-time membership fee of US$10,000 (used exclusively for the development of the community)
- Members are required to residing in the community and cannot sell their membership for an amount greater than the original amount paid for it
- Communities are limited to 10,000 inhabitants each
- All community-impacting decision-making are done by teams of volunteers with the highest level of training available in the specific area for a decision to be made, and based on sound empirical research; dissent requires sound empirical support to be taken into consideration
- Members can perform any activities provided these being ecologically and socially sustainable, peaceful and respectful of others' freedoms, bodies, and personal spaces
- Rights are only useful when they can be enforced; since the community is unable to enforce any rights, no rights can be claimed within the community
- Authority can only be granted willingly; requesting or imposing authority is considered inappropriate
- A member granting authority to another member enables the authorised member to self-impose on on the member for a specific purpose and for an agreed duration, or until authority is revoked
- A member seeking help from other member authorises them implicitly
- In seeking social sustainability, members are encouraged to making an effort in transcending learned notions of the following:
- property: rely on notions of access to shared resources instead; property is socially unsustainable as it creates inequality and division
- competition: rely on notions of collaboration instead; competition is socially unsustainable whenever it creates division and inequality
- attachment: rely on notions of freedom of access and provide for abundance instead; attachment is unsustainable as nothing lasts forever, and can be a source of negative feelings to those who need or desire the object of one's affection
- blame: seek to soothe the pains of the afflicted by pain instead (no one in a healthy emotional state would want to harm anyone else); blaming robs individuals from the opportunity to resolve conflicts at their source, which is usually society as a whole
- judgement: rely on notions of humility, tolerance and compassion towards others' differences and perceived faults instead; judging takes an authority that has not been granted voluntarily
- self-imposition: seek permission to interact, give advice, or help (except when authority has been willingly granted); even generosity and best intentions may cross boundaries, or be burdening or offensive
- righteousness: seek to stress a personal stance instead; notions of right and wrong are always learned and subjective, and cannot be imposed on others
- self-effacement: seek to communicate anything troubling and rely on the community for support; harbouring fear, guilt, shame, spite, anger, or jealousy is unsustainable and leads to harming oneself or others
- label: seek to accept anything unusual as not only unthreatening, but also socially enriching and valuable instead; labelling is unsustainable as it creates division and fragments society
- duty: seek to be fully self-expressed and act from genuine interest and motivation; duty is unsustainable as it is often self-imposing, judgemental and blameful
- The Gaia communities are syncretic (the combining of different, often seemingly contradictory beliefs), and avoid any cultural privileges or favouritism towards specific beliefs or traditions
- Beliefs, traditions, and worship require being either inclusive of all (such as festivities), expressed in private, or expressed in shared purposely designed spaces (such as a communal syncretic temple)
- With social sustainability as a primary goal, Gaia communities cannot harbour any kind of sectary or fragmentary beliefs, such as ideology, nationalism, or patriotism
[edit] The first Gaia Community as an Experimental Settlement
The first settlement, which is planned for implementation in 2015 in Ecuador, will be a first of its kind, and therefore it cannot guarantee its efficacy or capacity to sustain itself. Anyone willing to settle in the first community requires understanding very well the implications of living in an experimental community.
[edit] Characteristics
- Being a first of its kind, none of its members will have any experience in this particular kind of community, and possibly none will have experience with any kind of community either
- The experience can be dangerous as compared with traditional lifestyles, and there will be significant risks to physical and emotional health, resulting from a change in lifestyle, physical isolation from main cities, and lack of sophisticated resources such as operating theatres
[edit] Requirements
- Members are to be all 18 years of age or older (i.e. legal adults in Ecuador)
- Be willing to fully participate in the construction of the community's buildings and structures
- Be willing to educate themselves on physical and emotional health
- Be trusting, friendly and good natured
- Deal positively (e.g. seek support) with frustrations arising from the hardships and inconveniences of living in primitive circumstances whilst developing the community
- Prioritise doing what's needed as opposed to what's wanted
[edit] Goals
- Have all buildings constructed and operational within 6 months of the settlement
- Demonstrate empirically, after two years of trial run, that the lifestyle is conducive to physical, emotional and psychological wellbeing
- Demonstrate through testimonials that this lifestyle, even being simple living is worthwhile and desirable, conducive to freedom and great enjoyment
- Plan for safe inclusion of children at a later date or at newly developed communities, providing for all their needs and safety, including parenting strategies and education systems
- Plan for, and physically assist with, the development of a new community right after a successful two-year trial run, ideally with half of the population migrating to the new settlement to assist all newcomers with the adjustment to the new lifestyle
[edit] Risks
- Loss of life resulting from disease, poisoning, wild animals, drowning, accidents during the construction of the community, assassination by hostile travellers, or even manslaughter by accident or temporary insanity by one of the members
- Physical assault or rape by someone emotionally disturbed
- Physical mutilation or loss of senses resulting from accidents during construction
- Loss of part or the entirety of the membership fees
- Acquisition of infectious or sexually transmitted diseases
- Emotional or psychological breakdown due to hardships
[edit] Benefits
- Pioneering a lifestyle that could trigger a significant positive change in the world
- Once in a life adventure
- Gain knowledge and expertise in community building
- Develop trustworthiness and merit
- Take a brave stance for sustainability, equality and peace, and a source of inspiration for others
[edit] Long term goals
- Stimulating others to follow suit
- Create a social trend towards full sustainability
- Reduce the monetary costs of implementation of new communities as communities new communities are created
- Increase the reach of the communities to provide anyone willing with a chance to become a member
- Reduce the inequality and social turmoil that leads to poverty and war
[edit] Website features
[edit] User Registration
[edit] Registration of interests
[edit] Registration of skills offered
[edit] Links to social networking sites
[edit] Members
Name
User
Activities
[edit] Requests
Name
Ref
Description
Help with content and structure of the website
The RBE10K Multilingual Website is installed and ready to go. We need help with content and translations. Graphic designers, bloggers, teams willing to communicate their progress, and people with experience with CMSs (we use Joomla) will be very appreciated!
