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We are a fifth of the way there!
As written to an international
email forum
Hello Forum, hope all is well with you good folks. This is Paul here,
some of you will know me from events and happenings in Auroville, ranging
from the Genius Brothers,
through the Jazz Cafe to the tea shop underneath
the Eucalyptus trees, or for the work I have done in the greenbelt with
the
indigenous forest and at the new Botanical
Gardens. I am now engaged in a
different type of happening, that is making my life pretty interesting
and I
would like to take the time to share it with you.
I have been involved with
the land ever since my arrival 12 years ago, and
have seen how slowly, piece by piece, the land has been acquired. I
have
watched the individuals working both to buy the land and also to raise
the
funds for it. It is a task that few will take on, and thus those that
have
done it have always earned my respect. A few months ago I became
increasingly aware of the mounting problems with the land purchase,
the
speculators trying to move in, and the lack of funds to purchase the
land
offered by the neighboring farmers. I was also made aware of the fact
we had
borrowed money in order to maintain the momentum in land acquisition.
It all
came to a head at the beginning of this year when I was invited to attend
a
meeting with the real estate developer who had 50 acres of land in the
greenbelt, and he wanted to sell to Auroville. In this meeting it was
clear
to me that if we had had the money available we could have closed the
deal
on favorable terms for Auroville. Lack of capital meant uncertainty
and that
complex deals need to be negotiated with him in order to secure the
land for
our future.
I left the meeting thinking,
and putting all of the facts together in my
mind. I came to realize that in actual fact we, Auroville, need to raise
a
million dollars as fast as possible to get the land purchasing back
on to
solid ground, so that once again we are in control of the situation,
rather
than running to catch up. A million dollars is a lot of money, particularly
for an individual such as myself, to contemplate raising but within
a few
days two points had come to my mind to make the situation clear. Firstly
that a million is a thousand times a thousand and so we can focus on
raising
a thousand dollars, in a thousand different ways. Secondly that if everybody
with a heart connection to Auroville could give a little, say one day
a
month for six months, then we would achieve our goal, and enjoy the
experience of doing something together. What we do with these days is
up to
us, we can make things to sell, write to other people, encourage individuals
or groups to take up the challenge of a thousand dollars, or simple
give the
days wage to the land fund.
So for the past three
months I have been nurturing this idea, talking to
people, getting their responses, which have always been positive, and
slowly
building a momentum behind this idea. That by August 15th we will raise
a
million dollars for the land. So far things are going well. We have
had
events that have raised awareness and also brought in money. Like the
Creations for the Land exhibition, the Golden Mumpti Awards, and the
special
edition cheese from La Ferme. Larger donations have also come in and
within
these first three months we have raised around $200,000. We are a fifth
of
the way there!
Right now I am curious
to know how far the idea has spread and what people
think about it. It is time in the process to get feedback, is this idea
worth going for, is it relevant, can we achieve it, and what are the
next
steps for mobilizing our global family? So I am turning to different
forums
both within Auroville and outside and asking for feedback, trying to
create
a dialogue around this issue, and hoping that the dialogue will lead
to some
futher actions.
Do you guys have any feedback?
Let me know.
Paul
botanical@auroville.org.in
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