Update 2:

In the news

Perhaps the most alarming development this week was the arrest of GEAS top leaders including GEAS President Dr. Audrey Chen. The Attorney General has labeled the GEAS extinction report "a brazen act of psychological terrorism." To make matters worse, there have been reports of violence against GES volunteers in Russia, India and the United States. This is disturbing news for SEHIs all over the world!

Meanwhile, displaced persons who have become infected with the ReDS virus are facing yet another danger, of the human variety. In Nevada, roving gangs have been reported abducting ReDS victims from their homes and executing them. And, as if that wasn't bad enough, GEAS volunteer noplacelikehome tells a story of being abducted by a terrorist group who is trying to accelerate the Voluntary Extinction Movement by making people believe that they are infected with ReDS!

75,000 Refugees from the nation of Kiribati arrived at the Refugee Transition Facility in Alameda, CA. This tiny South Pacific nation is in the process of being swallowed up by rising sea levels. Speaking about the plan for the U.S. to take all of the refugees from Kiribati, alumino writes, "Keep them together, it was said, that will help their morale and help keep their culture alive. These people are being told their homeland is about to drown, I don’t think having the same neighbors will make you feel that much better."

This week, we'd like to highlight some of the major themes which are beginning to show themselves in Generation Exile.

New Government Structures Forming

The Democratic Central African Republic, or DCAR has come into being from a group of 16 million African refugees from various warring countries who "lost the will to continue fighting but will not allow each other to declare victory." Once essentially a refugee camp and dependent largely on humanitarian aid, DCAR has now defaulted to a semi-autonomous state, which has an electronic currency, is run with electronic democracy software and supports itself with high-intensity agriculture.
A Superstruct has formed around DCAR, and SEHIs are displaying the DCAR flag to show their support. This video explains the DCAR situation.

Privacy and Indentity

Being able to prove your identity while retaining your privacy continues to be a major problem for Generation Exile. Rebang2019 reports on seeing a communications-jamming self-propelled drone while anchored off the coast of Maine. This video, taken with a child's toy, clearly shows the device coming into view.

HexaYurt has an identity solution for refugees who need identification, CheapID. CheapID is a completely anonymous identity-escrow based emergency travel document which is internationally recognized." The document, easily printed from any computer, uses 2D bar codes and public-key encryption.

Housing and Temporary Shelter

TomC nicely elucidates one of this week's themes, "One question I don't see being asked - what is the basic goal? Assuming many can't be returned home, should the goal be re-settlement? I see quite a few people commenting as if "mobility" is going to be a new lifestyle. Should we be talking about how to make the mobile life "abundant" - or just how to make it survivable and how to create new places for people?"

There seem to be two camps of refugees/nomads forming: those that favor resettlement and those that favor a permanent nomadic existence. For those that favor resettlement, most of the ideas have grouped about finding ways to reclaim unused or abandoned places. The Squatter's Movement strives to live "above the grid" This movement is a "loose affiliation of independent communities" who are attempting to live independently, for the most part, while still using some services from the mainstream. Local farming is a cornerstone of above the grid living.

Ocyris reports how Detroit is combatting a glut of vacant homes by welcoming Eastern European and MIddle-Eastern refugees, but at a cost: increased conflict between newcomers and long-time residents. He notes, "In some of the neighborhoods I work in, you can see the resentment on the faces of people who have been there for generations."

Homestead-in-a-Box, created by Josh, is attempting to create an all-in-one manual for self-sufficient living. "With all the disruption and upheaval in 2019, for some there is no greater priority than to live an ideologically autonomous life." PlatonicJensen's The Emergency Permaculture Kit complements this by providing "everything a refugee needs to start a sustainable garden".

Some projects are going to be useful to homesteaders and nomads alike. The Portable EnergySuperstruct is working on ways to create portable power out of human energy. Vinay Gupta (also known as Hexayurt Project) has created a specification for a lightweight, portable and open-sourced dwelling, called, you guessed it - the HexaYurt. The similarly-named Superstruct The Hexayurt Project is striving to open-source not only shelter, but also portable food/water/waste solutions and rapid-response food growing technology.

Speaking of food, Gypsy Farms is taking a slightly different approach - trading the farming and agriculture expertise of refugees for the shelter and resources of local communities. Founder Fangtoang writes. "Sharing must be a two-way street. Exiles must earn their keep and hosts must support new members of the ocommunity in becoming self-sufficient , settled, and active as quickly as possible. Above all, this will take a light heart and humor. Dances to take place every night!"

On the housing side, Meeware has proposed a fair trade lodging system</a>" similar to the couch surfers" of the early 2000s, but he cautions that visitors may quickly become unwelcome, "...though we seek a stable and harmonious relationship between hosts and visitors, we must recognize that we are pushing against some core human psychologies."

As Omar Gutierrez reports, some have even considered taking to the sea: "At first we considered living on boats in the same area, becoming nomads in the Louisiana marshes and pre-gulf waters, but this plan could not support many people, and so many of us set to wandering." Kaycee tells a similar story, "We have had to take to the sea as aquatic nomads after two thirds of the Netherlands was drowned by the rising seas. We are currently in negotiations with the Republic of Scotland for anchorage and trading facilities."

Communication

After Weather2019 challengedThe New Pony Express to "put its money where its mouth is" and prove out a real, working mail relay system, the result was the New Pony Express Mail Relay Experiment, which has tasked itself with delivering a real piece of mail via a network of volunteer to GEAS Headquarters by November 17th. Weather2019 discusses how this all came about, and explains how SEHIs across the country can get involved by discussing the project and adding themselves to the map of relay nodes.

The Nomadic Markup Language (NoChalking) project to create a graphical language for regugees and nomads appears to be taking off as well. A full discussion has begun on the Nochalking Forum on MetaStructure. Ideas are stretching from a purely graffiti-based language to a web of Bluetooth-enabled nodes that can be activated when in range of a cell phone. Archomaroon argues against high-tech methods. "Technology is all well and good, but given the widespread activities of hackers, we need analogue back-ups. Technology breaks, runs out of power, or simply gets lost when wandering." A contest to submit proposed NoChalking symbols resulted in this blog post by rtgarden2019 showing a few symbols. Lehall submitted two images, one showing a symbol for a New Pony Express node and another one that indicates a problem with food or hospitality. This video shows weather2019 drawing a symbol indicating that "mob justice rules here".

Helping children to deal with the superthreats is the focus of 21st Century Wonder Tales. Founder mudmama wants to create a new collection of 21st-century tales and fables that "that tell the tale of the superthreats and the kinds of heroes and heroines we need today!"

Collaboration

SEHIs continue to Superstruct and collaborate to meet the Generation Exile superthreat. Omar Gutierrez wants to work with SEHIs to save the culture of refugees with the Migrant Lore Database.

The Buzz, created by hardworking SEHI ineffabelle, is working to create "buzz for your superstructure by serving all of your multimedia, advertising, and production needs!"

This has been an event-filled week. As an old proverb says, "may you live in interesting times!"

~ Steve Puma (currently near Truckee, California), and noplacelikehome (Melissa Richards, just outside of Cleveland, Ohio), October 25, 2019

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