Second group meeting in the Netherlands

Happy 2023! Gelukkig Nieuwjaar en Feliz Año!

Nothing good in life happens without effort. Restoring and repopulating an abandoned village is an ambitious goal. And we are doing this in a time of instant gratification and massive distraction from our gadgets. But the rewards are huge too: liberty in our lifetime, for our children, and our community.

This is why, when speaking for myself, I love to be able to focus on one thing at a time. Cutting and trimming the jungle in our village, for example. And this coming year, restoring the roof, floor, doors & windows, plumbing and so forth, of our first house.

Niets goeds in het leven gebeurt zonder inspanning. Een verlaten dorp herstellen en herbevolken is een ambitieus doel. In een tijd waarin onze gadgets ons telkens afleiden, is het soms lastig om de focus te houden op lange termijn doelen. Maar de beloning van ons streven is groots. Meer vrijheid voor onszelf, onze kinderen en onze gemeenschap.

Daarom vind ik het, als ik voor mezelf spreek, heerlijk om me op één ding tegelijk te kunnen concentreren. Bijvoorbeeld het maaien en snoeien van het struweel in ons overgroeide dorp. En dit komende jaar, het herstellen van het dak, de vloer, deuren en ramen, loodgieterswerk enzovoort, van ons eerste huis.

Restoring the whole village as well as repopulating it will take many years, perhaps even a life’s work. And it will be an amazing journey. It already is!

It was a tremendous joy to see so many of you at our meeting, considering to partake in this project. You realized that talking about freedom only means something when it is followed by action. Thank you for coming and joining our community towards a better future!

Het zal vele jaren duren om ons dorp te herstellen en opnieuw te bevolken. Wellicht is het een levenswerk, maar bovenal een fantastisch avontuur!

Het heeft me verheugd om met zovelen te spreken op onze bijeenkomst. Jullie snappen dat praten over vrijheid alleen zin heeft wanneer het wordt opgevolgd met daden. Hartelijk dank voor jullie komst en deel te nemen aan onze gemeenschap voor een betere toekomst!

PS: I prepared information packages for individual houses that you might be interested in. Contact me for more information

Liberty within our lifetime

A week ago, the first floating house or ‘Sea Pod’ was presented by Ocean Builders. This company is affiliated with the Seasteading Institute, a libertarian organization originally founded by Patri Friedman (grandson of Milton). What would have been a milestone in an ambitious project to achieve ‘liberty within our lifetime’ went horribly wrong. The ‘Seapod’ began to tilt right after the presentation. Without trying to be mean, the irony cannot be ignored: libertarians are notoriously bad at developing libertarian projects.

Continue reading “Liberty within our lifetime”

Towards a Free Capitalist Commune

My previous article received many positive responses, including from a libertarian who is searching for a new home in southern Europe as we speak. At this stage it is already possible to go on a trip with three others and buy a hamlet with a lot more houses/ruins than we need for ourselves alone. But with a larger group of participants, our chance of success increases. We are going to get started as soon as possible with a website for those interested and a telegram group for participants who want to sign up.

Continue reading “Towards a Free Capitalist Commune”

Utopia in Honduras

Over the last 18 months, as governments around the world used the China flu to diminish already limited freedoms of the ordinary citizens with lockdowns, mask mandates and restrictions for those who do not wish to use an experimental medical treatment, many liberty minded individual are wondering, where can I go to?


The answer could be a Free Private City in Honduras.

Continue reading “Utopia in Honduras”

FROM NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TO INSTAGRAM PART II

Last April I completed a project which had taken me almost a year. For those who haven’t read the first article let me give you a recap: on the mostly uninhabited and remote Caribbean coast of Panama, a group of investors acquired a large piece of land, with several beaches on it the biggest stretching over 300 meters. However behind that postcard pretty beach is, or was, a massive swamp. And the first step for draining a swamp is contracting a Dutchman, yours truly.

Because of environmental concerns and logistic constrains the project relied exclusively on muscle power, my team averaged between 12 to 22 men and one woman for diversity purposes (just kidding, she was our cook). With the exception of chainsaws and boats no motorized equipment was used. Even the workers accommodation was entirely built out of wood, with chainsaw, hammer and nails.

Over the course of the project we dug two channels each close to one kilometer in length, and changed the course of a stream. A steady flow of water now debouches into the sea where there was none before we started. One thing I learned from the experience is that we as a society have a tendency to over-complicate (construction) projects. Here we are, no electricity, no cell phones, just a group of strong men with the most basic of tools. I drew out a simple plan with pen and paper, we map it out (ok I did use GPS there) and simply started working. Work hard consistently and eventually you get the job done.

By contrast: organizing the logistics for the use of heavy equipment not to mention permits would most likely have been more expensive and probably taken just as much time.
In addition to the canals and housing, several hectares were cleared and planted with coconut trees, and many ornamental plants were planted for future gardens.