This is a typical case where I feel that choosing the village lifestyle is still a very sacrifial thing. I like much about them, I like the wiki, I like the fact that they have a tiny federation of 4 micro-villages in that valley working together, but still there is obvious hardships to endure. My quest is that if we really tackle village development from a strategic and inventive point, * can we bring with us some meaningful civilsational riches that allow us to live an independent AND decent life? * can we reap the harvest of human knowledge about automation and work more effective in a deeper interplay with nature? They have all my admiration because they dont wait for better circumstances, still its a tough way to begin, not easily possible for older and very young people. I just pubished a piece that mirrors not only my agony of the moment: http://globalvillages.ning.com/profiles/blogs/a-new-years-message-to There is a strategic choice to make: to influence mainstream society and have it accept the village as an extension of an otherwise unsustainable system. Accept it in all its autonomy and self - relatedness as a vital factor in an economy that has long time ago started to self-destruct. The only chance that this will ever happen is if a critical mass of villages around the globe teams up, to large to ignore as a customer to cater to - and as a force to respect at the same time. This year, there will be a gathering of Village communities in Berlin and this should not go unnoticed. http://www.rosalux.de/fileadmin/rls_uploads/pdfs/Themen/GK_Ländlicher_Raum/Announcement_int.village-conf.pdf maybe this meeting will bring some new developments to move the villages movement forward. Franz