Nomadland the worldwide revolution of living in a caravan has just started.
Greek and foreign investors have been buying huge stretches of land on Mykonos island and other areas to build caravan camping sites.
Two Lebanese millionaires bought 30 acres of land outside the zoning area on Antiparos island in order to build a camping site for caravans but also for people from all over the world that live in their cars.
An Italian and a Spanish businessman bought 12 acres of land near Syvota area for the same purpose. Intel that reaches The Clockwork Orange Times says that the same phenomenon spreads as lightning all over Greece.
It is not a Greek phenomenon though. It looks as if it is a Global Revolution against the way of life we have known until today. A revolution eco-friendly and with the smallest carbon footprint. The end of the pandemic gives birth to the new meta-Covid hippies.
If you look carefully at the city streets, at the camping sites and the remote places, you will see more Americans than ever living in their vehicles. It had never been their initial plan says Guardian.
“I was not prepared when I had to move and turn my SUV into a home. Life led me. I had not saved money. I was really scared.”
After being divorced by her husband, she was found homeless in June 2020, a fact that deteriorated her depression disorder for which she gets $1,100 disability allowance per month.
“I could have got an apartment, but in a horrible insecure place and live without any money, and not being able to do anything.”
So, it does not come as a surprise: the loss of employment, the divorce or for example the sudden start of a global health crisis and the financial crisis that will follow.
“If the Great Depression was a crack on the system, Covid-19 and climate change will be the chasm” says Bob Wells , 65, the nomad that plays himself in the movie Nomadland, ex Oscar nominee in a movie having leading actor Frances McDormand. Bob helped April adopt the nomad life and change her own life.
Nowadays, he lives solely on public land in a GMC Savana with 400 watts solar power and a 12-volt fridge. His mission is to promote the nomadic life in a car, a van, or an RV as a means of homelessness prevention.
Bob became a nomad in 1995. Till then he used to live in Alaska with his wife and two kids.
One day, while he was worrying about his finances, he saw a green caravan that was for sale and thought: “Why not buy this van and move in it?” The idea struck as crazy, but with the prospect of homelessness, he withdrew his last $1.500 from his account and bought the van.
He informed his landlord and that night he put a sleeping bag at the back of his new home and hit the sack.
Next it was the first day of the month and it dawned on him: he did not have to pay rent! As his finances improved, he installed insulation, a proper bed, even an always dreamed PlayStation. He started working only for 32 hours a week and as every weekend was actually three days off, he spent more time with his children at the camping site, something that “helped very much” with his intellectual perspective in life.
In the end, he was really happy.
Realizing that he had something valuable to share, he bought the Cheap RV Living domain in 2005. Here he started publishing advice and tricks about how to turn vehicles into better homes but what it really offers is a road map for a better life.
Four years later, when almost 10 million Americans were evicted after the recession, there was an explosion in his website’s number of visits. Finding himself in the centre of a web community, he decided to organize a gathering at Quartzsite Arizona.
He called it Rubber Tramp Rendezvous (RTR) and in January 2011 45 vehicles appeared. Eight years later almost 10,000 vehicles arrived there for the so called greatest nomadic gathering in the world.
Mykonos February 2021.
A jeep was crossing the rough area that leaves behind the Moroergo area and leads to the unknown untracked Mykonos. To dream places on the island that nobody has heard of.
The interested buyers did not have any signs of what characterizes the type of fortune hunter that the island attracts like shit does to flies. Before arriving here, they had talked to ambassador Payet and had also visited many times the German Scorpios- the well-known Mykonian club.
The American buyers had already chosen the piece of land they were interested in-about 20acres. Here they have decided to welcome the new meta-modern community of the hippies. An agency that sells luxurious motor caravans participates in the investment.
The most impressive thing of all is that while you are afraid for your life due to Covid-19 as it is reasonable , some make sure they run faster than the virus.
The explosive rise of Bobs initiative now in the USA is undeniably the reflection of the increasing interest of the USA in the vans as an answer to the housing crisis.
Whether he is sharing a philosophical exploration like in the Why I live in a Van or explaining the mechanisms of Pooping in a car, Van or RV, Bob’s videos are a valuable free budget source with 460,000 subscribers which allows him to have an income from the adds.
His most popular video, Living in a car with $800 per month has more 4 million views.
He does not like he term “fun” and surely, he does not want to be considered a guru. On the contrary, he is led by a quiet demon-cum-angel. After the catastrophic loss of his eldest son in 2011 he was overwhelmed by despair and for the first time in his life he had suicidal thoughts.
“Why am I alive when my son is not?” he obsessively asked himself.
In a desperate call for strength, he finally found the will to endure pain by servicing and building the community.
“If I am going to live, then there better be a reason, and this reason is the reason. You are the reason” he said to a crowd at RTR in 2020, the one that was published later as a video related to mental illness for his web audience.
The culmination of this effort is the Home on Wheels Alliance (Howa) a non-profit charity he founded in 2018 that helps the homeless who have lost their homes and live in this community.
Up until today, financed by sponsors and donations, has given 7 minivans, two caravans, a skoolie and many tents and tyres.
This is really important for pauper.
“Most of the petitions are by elderly women. They are either disabled, retired and divorced without sufficient SSI because they had been housewives or they just do not earn enough to pay rent”, explained Bob.
Learning to save money and live without a rent in their vehicles, Howa clients maintain their independence, self-sufficiency and dignity, while they are able to make friends within the wider nomadic community.
Together they run to the near laundry, grocery, and gym. They eat more healthily and discover the meaning of volunteering.
-I have lost 20kgs and I fell healthier, thanks to the fact that I eat fresh food and I have a more energetic way of life.
-I do not survive. I simply thrive.
-I heard that it is a constant party.
It is also a chance for us to decrease the carbon footprint and make ourselves more resistant to recessions.
“I want to leave behind a liveable world. For every person I can help move into a van, this will mean a person less in a traditional apartment”.
November 2020
In this case we did not have to do with American or foreign investors. Two Greekamerican businessmen were going to buy 50acres of land, a huge piece of land outside Argos so that they will be able to host a small caravan city here.
If you think that the mighty Bill Gate has recently bought 248,000acres of land, There is something going on here you pussies…..
