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There was some concern this year that the internet played a role in helping to get our Hawi site shut down, in helping to get our first site in Waipi'o shut down, and in helping our NIMBY friends in the larger community work more coordinatedly to try to shut us down completely.
First, I disagree that the internet itself was the cause of our problems. The manner that information was posted this year was not much different than last year, and last year was a still a success in the sense that we did not have to move the gathering. It could be argued that's because last year not many people knew about the website, and now they do-- both our fellow gatherers, and our nimby neighbours. We have to find a balance in the flow of information such that our fellow gatherers from all over the world can find us and not wander around the community possibly causing problems while looking for us.
Even if no information had been posted on the website, the Hawi site was bad enough that we probably would have had to move the gathering anyway. Our scouts being mostly punatics who did not successfully engage enough with the larger community-- even though we knew kohala was a densely populated area-- we did not know the controversial history of the site, and we walked right into the middle of a situation that was bad and had been bad long before our time. It could be argued that if the site had been posted on the internet earlier-- we would have found out how bad it was before the official start day. But we cannot post this kind of sensitive information too early on the internet.
Information about the gathering needs to be very judiciously handed out. Nimby neighbours are a powerful force to contend with, and the sooner they are tipped off to our location, the sooner they can coordinate their efforts to shut us down. While neighbours say that we must "ask for permission" before we "descend" onto a community, the truth is permission would almost never be granted-- not without dramatically changing the nature of what a rainbow gathering is... portapotty-rentals, liability wavers, admission fees-- in short, becoming a legitimate non-profit or commercial event-- which is really the antithesis of what a rainbow gathering is all about. Our only salvation is to find a site remote enough that we can complete our prayer for the earth in our own way without being disturbed by the outside world, where we can leave enough clues such that the truly dedicated can find us, but not enough to make it easy for members of the larger community to pinpoint us on a map.
Imagine a very remote gathering site-- we'll call it Point C.
Nearest bus stop is an unspecified number of miles away, point B
Nearest public water spigot, hopefully at a little park with some other amenities, is point A.
In this scenario, a month long hike-in gathering with no parking area, I propose that only point A be posted on the internet and made as public knowledge-- even earlier than the official start date so the seed camp can open to all. People who want to get to the gathering will have to wait at Point A, maybe for days, and this will be the only staging ground. Rather than just driving up and parking, getting to the gathering site will be a rite of initiation and passage, purifying, exhilerating, spiritually cleansing, in a way that only backpackers can understand.
Should we have to move the site... since we only brought in what we carried on our backs, it should be less daunting. We can move together as a community to the next very remote and secretive site and so on until our prayer for the earth is satisfied. Welcome to the first ever international-style Hawai'i rainbow gathering!
Imagine this:
2008 Dec 27, 2:23 AM... New Moon... Seed Camp Officially begins.
2009 Jan 10, 5:27PM... Full Moon... Ancient Greek Festival of Lenaia
2009 Jan 25, 9:56PM... New Moon... First ever international-style Hawai'i rainbow gathering officially begins. Chinese New Year
2009 Feb 9, 4:49 AM... Full Moon Penumbral Eclipse... Chinese Lantern Festival
2009 Feb 24, 3:35 PM... New Moon... clean up officially ends
How many people from around the world would be willing to travel to Hawai'i for two months of international-style rainbow adventure... a couple hundred?
Sounds fun to me! But I need some consensus... feedback pro and con... and over the next year we will council on this on this both in person and on the net... since this is dramatically different than the casual island-style rainbow gatherings we have had up till now. Anybody?
Aloha,
Benjamin
First, I disagree that the internet itself was the cause of our problems. The manner that information was posted this year was not much different than last year, and last year was a still a success in the sense that we did not have to move the gathering. It could be argued that's because last year not many people knew about the website, and now they do-- both our fellow gatherers, and our nimby neighbours. We have to find a balance in the flow of information such that our fellow gatherers from all over the world can find us and not wander around the community possibly causing problems while looking for us.
Even if no information had been posted on the website, the Hawi site was bad enough that we probably would have had to move the gathering anyway. Our scouts being mostly punatics who did not successfully engage enough with the larger community-- even though we knew kohala was a densely populated area-- we did not know the controversial history of the site, and we walked right into the middle of a situation that was bad and had been bad long before our time. It could be argued that if the site had been posted on the internet earlier-- we would have found out how bad it was before the official start day. But we cannot post this kind of sensitive information too early on the internet.
Information about the gathering needs to be very judiciously handed out. Nimby neighbours are a powerful force to contend with, and the sooner they are tipped off to our location, the sooner they can coordinate their efforts to shut us down. While neighbours say that we must "ask for permission" before we "descend" onto a community, the truth is permission would almost never be granted-- not without dramatically changing the nature of what a rainbow gathering is... portapotty-rentals, liability wavers, admission fees-- in short, becoming a legitimate non-profit or commercial event-- which is really the antithesis of what a rainbow gathering is all about. Our only salvation is to find a site remote enough that we can complete our prayer for the earth in our own way without being disturbed by the outside world, where we can leave enough clues such that the truly dedicated can find us, but not enough to make it easy for members of the larger community to pinpoint us on a map.
Imagine a very remote gathering site-- we'll call it Point C.
Nearest bus stop is an unspecified number of miles away, point B
Nearest public water spigot, hopefully at a little park with some other amenities, is point A.
In this scenario, a month long hike-in gathering with no parking area, I propose that only point A be posted on the internet and made as public knowledge-- even earlier than the official start date so the seed camp can open to all. People who want to get to the gathering will have to wait at Point A, maybe for days, and this will be the only staging ground. Rather than just driving up and parking, getting to the gathering site will be a rite of initiation and passage, purifying, exhilerating, spiritually cleansing, in a way that only backpackers can understand.
Should we have to move the site... since we only brought in what we carried on our backs, it should be less daunting. We can move together as a community to the next very remote and secretive site and so on until our prayer for the earth is satisfied. Welcome to the first ever international-style Hawai'i rainbow gathering!
Imagine this:
2008 Dec 27, 2:23 AM... New Moon... Seed Camp Officially begins.
2009 Jan 10, 5:27PM... Full Moon... Ancient Greek Festival of Lenaia
2009 Jan 25, 9:56PM... New Moon... First ever international-style Hawai'i rainbow gathering officially begins. Chinese New Year
2009 Feb 9, 4:49 AM... Full Moon Penumbral Eclipse... Chinese Lantern Festival
2009 Feb 24, 3:35 PM... New Moon... clean up officially ends
How many people from around the world would be willing to travel to Hawai'i for two months of international-style rainbow adventure... a couple hundred?
Sounds fun to me! But I need some consensus... feedback pro and con... and over the next year we will council on this on this both in person and on the net... since this is dramatically different than the casual island-style rainbow gatherings we have had up till now. Anybody?
Aloha,
Benjamin
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