Ecovillage Community in SW Portugal

Why Community?

In the human body health is the harmonic co operation of all cells.  This means that each cell full fills the purpose for which it was created.It serves the other cells and these in turn serve it.  An illness is created when one cell freaks out and starts working for its own benefit, without caring about what this means to the organism as a whole.  (Of course, this is a reciprocal process, as the organism influences its cells in different ways).

Human Society today seems to be in such a state. One keeps hearing that human fulfilment is to be found in economic success, becoming rich, ultimately in egoism. Transferred to the human body that would mean “hey cells, you can all transform into cancer cells which multiply recklessly and take up lots of space within the body without caring about the original function”. The result is well visible and public knowledge-through the activity of the many busy cancer cells, the situation on earth has become quite problematic.

It is high time to return to a state of health. On the human level that means to me: on all levels of community ~ Intimate relationships, families,workforces, villages,cities,whole countries~ it is necessary to start a process of each individual questioning their roles in each situation, to find out how he or she can best serve the Community.

About Me:

My name is Mike Duetz, I am 48 and since 24 years have lived here in SW Portugal. 

Early in my life I realised that it is great fun for me to dig in the soil to work with plants and animals. After finishing school I spent half a year in a kibbutz in Israel. After that I lived in a small community comprising five people in Germany, We had a natural food store, grew organic veggies to sell on the market and did some work in construction. 

I see a lot of problems in the world: in the areas of Economics, politics,and social. All together it seems questionable to me, whether the human race will behave in a manner that will enable it to survive on this planet. To develop solutions to these problems, humans will have to co-operate combine their abilities and overcome their weaknesses by helping each other. 

When I came here in 1985 I imagined that it would be sufficient to live as an ecological anarchist, living on the land and from the soil generally speaking in a politically correct way and then things would just fall into place. I still find it important to do these things. At present I think that living in peace with ones surroundings is more a consequence of an inner state of being than something you can attain through external activities. (More about this further). Having arrived here in Portugal I bought some land and started to grow some crops for self sufficiency. Since there was no money to be made in agriculture I started to work as a builder. This became my main activity. I have gained a degree of experience in this area, also in building with natural materials, like clay and straw. 

Through the years here I have learned that farming here does not only mean growing crops and breeding animals. It actually means keeping your whole property maintained. The hilly landscape here makes this arduous. I have two children- a son born in 1994 and a daughter born in 2000. My relationship with their mothers was not always easy. This state of affairs led me to discover a lot of things about myself. It has led me to say: all living things, human beings,animals,plants and even places have a certain inner energy. From this energy develop actions limitations and possibilities. Top change something in the first place it it important to perceive this energy. Then you can try to change it in a positive way. A number of practical possibilities come to mind. To describe these in more details is impossible in this limited space. 

Anyway I came to recognise that it is not enough to live politically correct if or when one is suffering from a lot of inner pain. It is important to recognise this inner pain and to process it. This is not an easy thing to do. I believe that what is needed to do this is a protective space where people give each other the necessary confidence and support. I think that the result of processing ones inner pain should also be that every body becomes clearer about his purpose and his meaning in life. This in turn should make people better suited for community life.

How do I imagine Community?

Community could be defined thus: A place where people join in order to help each other to become clearer, less burdened by fears and pain and thus better able to reveal their essence. In my opinion this essence is always connected with doing something that goes beyond the limit of personal benefit, something you do for others. For me community should be a place where people try to co-exist in peace and respect with all living beings. This will not happen all at once. For example cars do not respect life very much. All the same we will have to make use of them for some time to come. This being so we should use them as little and as sensibly as possible. It would be good to initiate research into reducing emissions and other dangerous side effects within a community. The same goes for many other areas of self sufficiency – you need some financial means and experience in the area. 

How quickly a community advances in these areas depends on the number of people and their knowledge. Generally I would say: when we consume goods and services we take a responsibility-for the way they are produced with which technology, with what chemicals, under which social conditions and so on. The ideal would be to produce almost all goods and services needed within the community. To attain this goal it is obviously an on-going process. I imagine a community which in the first place creates a positive definition for all areas of life agriculture, building, transport, education and so on. 

As a second step these definitions have to be translated into concepts which include the financial aspect. Once these concepts are defined the community can search for people able to realise them. In some areas for example, agriculture and building I think it will not be very difficult to attain concrete results in a number of years. In other areas for example, education it will probably take some more time. To start your own school you need a critical mass of children dedicated adults and money. 

Community means to me that people begin again to behave consciously as a part of nature. Not as “masters of creation” who have the right to just consume living things but as caretakers of this planet. Being a caretaker means to support diversity to create and support life. Here in this area there are two things needed to achieve this. The first one is to create as many lakes and ponds as possible. Once these have been created a lot of life forms will appear in and around them. The second one is to plant as much area of forest as possible. These two measures are closely connected: the more water there is in the soil, the better the trees will grow- and the more trees there are the more water the soil will retain. 

Community means to me to live together with all ages. To realise this each community should have its own school. I imagine school to be an institution which encourages children to experience real life, which means they are not going to be sitting around in classrooms so much but will go out and participate in the daily tasks of the community. I personally as a father like to imagine that some day my children might be able to just meet me during the day and participate in my work instead of spending their whole days far away from me.

Children will build the new world more radically than ourselves. They should get everything they need- liberty and rules. In a community there has to be space for old people. They should be able to use their experience and their abilities to help building the community. In return their needs should be catered for. 

Last not least: the pure joy of living and doing something is very important. I tend to forget that with all the obligations, political correctness and so on. This is a basic human right: to work not for a boss, or in order to pay back a credit, but out of real joy about what you are doing. To stand in front of a well ploughed field or a wall well built look at it and say”it is well done”. Also know that I have done something here which satisfies a real human need. In this context and important thing is also regaining ones independence. In normal society people become more and more specialised and depend more and more on other specialists for all areas of their lives. In my understanding art also belongs here. To my mind art means to do something with passion and with your whole heart. I think there is no clearly defined border between a job really well done and a work of art. 

Community also means to me to express solidarity. Each member of the community should be entitled to receive the help and support he or she needs. The other way around each member should whole-heartedly give his abilities and his enthusiasm to the community. Here in the area there is a community called Tamera. They call themselves a “healing biotope”. On one hand I find that a bit high-blown, they are giving themselves a pretty high target. On the other hand I find the basic thinking sound. Community as a place where people come together who want to do healing work and preferably already have concrete experience of doing this in a certain area- that sounds like a good idea.

Lets get Practical

I can imagine that people reading this become impatient and start saying “ that all well and nice this is all theoretical, but how does the guy imagine this will work in practice?” I will try to outline my ideas about this .

Why here in SW Portugal?

First for personal reasons:

• because my children live here and I like to be close to them.

• because I already have lived here 25 years. I know the language and the local conditions.

General reasons:

• because I like the landscape. It is hilly and diverse. Sparsely populated and the sea is close.

• The climate is so mild that you can grow food all year round. That means you do not have a problem of storage. You can also spend a lot of time out-doors which means your buildings do not have to be a big as for example in Germany.

• Because the landscape and the climate are similar to a lot of the poorer countries in the world. This means that if you find solutions for problems like desertification,soil degradation,lack of water, these solutions could be applied to these countries as well.

• Because large properties are a lot cheaper here than for example in Germany.

A few months ago I happened to visit a property that would fit the bill for a community. The area is 110 hcts and the price asked is 1 million Euro. According to the council plan it should be possible to build about 4000 m2 of living space and the same area for workshop space. There are some ruins on the land. There are are also two wells. Thus almost everything still has to be created buildings must be erected, electricity must be laid on, water must be stored and distributed. I will not go into more detail right now. The first step would always have to be for a group of people to get together. After that a suitable property can always be found. It would also be necessary to contact the local council before any purchase and tell them more or less honestly about the intentions of the project. There are thousands of aspects with such an enterprise, which I cannot cover here. I imagine that it has to start like this: First some courageous people with the necessary small change have to get together. Then it has to be decided which legal form the purchase would take. I would like to find a form which provides the possibility that more people can join and become owners. On the other hand I think it is important not to start with total socialism, but instead with a form of ownership where people own their individual houses and define their individual parcels of land. I think there should be some kind of constitution a basic idea about where we want to go, how to develop the property and turn it into a “healing space”. It is important to do things together from the beginning- for example work in the garden together and erect some communal buildings. On the other hand it is important not to get to closely entangled financially at least not in the beginning. Thus it would be a good idea for the members to have individual houses. This also, in order to create a private space where one can be by oneself or with the family. Since a community will live in Portugal contact with the Portuguese is very important . Ideally a lot of the members should be Portuguese. At least knowledge of the Portuguese language should be a proviso. I think it is important that all members have contact with the soil to the fields and the landscape in general. That means everybody should have basic knowledge of working with plants and practice this from time to time. This creates humility. Craftsmen are also very important. Ideally every member should have some basic knowledge of a craft. This includes music, healing skills and so on. Different skills should have the same value. A yard well swept is just as valuable as some new software or the draft of a speech. Precautionary measures should be taken against the formation of a hierarchy. Unpopular jobs like cleaning loos should be done on rotation. Of course the question will come up – how will the community survive financially?- I have some ideas concerning this, but this would be better discussed personally.

Kontakt

Dear readers, this is an overview of my ideas. I am glad for any constructive criticism and suggestions. You can e mail me at the address on the end of the page but since I am not very computer literate yet the quickest way to contact me is by phone: 00351 967 885 440 OR per E-Mail.