book review, Volumn 2 number 8, August 2000 Gaviotas: A Village to Reinvent the World by Alan Wiseman Mike Musick was very excited about this book, and told me about wind turbines that convert mild tropical breezes into energy. He talked about children playing on seesaws and thereby pumping water from wells, of solar collectors that work under cloudy skies, and of a fossil-fuel-free village located in Colombia, of all places. Mike said: "You have to read this book!" I tell you now: you have to read this book! The author didn’t write a dry account of boring technical facts. He wrote an adventure story, a good adventure story. I’d put it next to Robinson Crusoe on my bookshelf. But being assured that all this is reality, and not just a passionate dream, has a deep impact on this reader, and you probably will feel the same way after the first two pages. You pick up this book and never put it down for a minute. You forget to turn off the light and sleep, you even forget to go to the bathroom. If you remember to go there, you take the book with you. That’s Gaviotas, the book. Gaviotas the village is the medicine the world needs. It’s the village that grows a rainforest in a savannah where nothing except grass would grow. It’s the village where for three decades now scientists, artisans, peasants, ex-street kids, and Guahibo Indians live and work in a society that gives each member equality, social benefits, work, and food. It asks for the inventiveness of each individual working for the common goals, flexibility in work hours, and endurance when times get rough. In Gaviotas you don’t know exactly when you’ll get paid, but you don’t worry about food, housing or bills. Paolo Lugari, the man who created Gaviotas, was born in 1944 in Columbia. His father was an Italian attorney and engineer who came to Columbia, married and raised his child there. Paolo Lugari started his dream Gaviotas in 1967 when he was only 23 years old. People told Lugari that Gaviotas was a utopia (which literally translated means no place). He proved them wrong, and after thirty years, Gaviotas is still kicking. It is a topia, a real place. Of course, Lugari got funds from the UN, and he put his own money into it as well. After a while the funds ran out, and no more subsidies were available. They managed to fund themselves through the sales of solar collectors and water pumps, and later on with high quality resin from the pine forest they planted. With an economic recession and a war going on for the last 30 years it takes something special to make things work, to emerge again and again like a phoenix out of the ashes. It takes open minds, it takes people who try to think in different ways, and who don’t give up after a setback. Gaviotas the village is a good role model. Gaviotas the book is a fantastic read. You can check it out of the Ester Library, but you’ll have to get in line.
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