The Isle of Eigg | ARTE.tv Documentary

12 June is a very important date for the small Scottish island of Eigg. On this day in 1997, the islanders purchased their home from their landlord and took control of their destiny. More than 25 years later, how have the local people managed the community owned Eigg?
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The Isle of Eigg | ARTE.tv Documentary
🗓 Available until the 08/11/2024
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[@marianfrances4959]

Awesome. Best wishes to all involved. 👍😎🇨🇦🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@jameslarkin8494]

Bottom Line .. Leave the inhabitants in peace....

[@gerryhouska2859]

Good on you, more power to you, Eiggers! Wish we had more direct democracy in Australia.

[@sigiloXXX]

Well, good luck on buying an island from a single owner, if you know what I mean 😇

[@MistressQueenBee]

well done docu. loved learning of each person interviewed.

[@EmmanuelBacena]

This would be our dream place. I would love to have a place to have plants, animals that would be organic, free range. Away from the city but still have access to modern life. If only i could sell my house now and move.

[@Lindsay.k3492]

Absolutely 💯

[@brendatroy2843]

I HOPE ONE DAY SOON THE ISLAND COMMUNITY OF ALL THE NEIGHBORS CAN BUILD A GAINT GREENHOUSE SO THEY CAN GROW THEIR OWN FRUIT AND VEGETABLES

[@spiral-m]

I loved my visits to Eigg and am inspired by much of the “revolution”. I do wonder whether subsidised animal farming is tied more to traditional beliefs and artificial propping up than what was claimed with cattle farming though - grazing is incredibly inefficient and prevents the natural succession of trees on Eigg which rejuvenate the soil, provide timber, and a carbon sink. The subsidies need to be put into sustainable systems. Maybe fermentation plants, leaf protein, mushroom-growing etc. The Hebrides used to have a lot of scrub woodland. Of course livelihoods must be sustained but if enough people changed their eating habits, including the tourists, and belief systems, and with imagination we could kick start a further true revolution and force politics to finance its beginnings in place of wasteful and exploitative systems.

[@brendatroy2843]

I THINK THE ISLAND OF EIGG SHOULD HAVE THEIR OWN FLAG..

[@archprizm6066]

Land speculation is guaranteed to ruin any economy regardless of structure

[@jacksutton4643]

Once I’m old enough somewhere like this sounds amazing but would be a big change from Somerset

[@poughkeepsie8516]

So? Do it anyway. If you find out it wasn’t the right thing, you simply reverse it. Life’s too short not to follow your dreams. Greetings from a German grandmother

[@dilandevinda]

❤

[@Shambles770]

They could get some shock soon enough with all the people arriving

[@lenzp4133]

some random guy, who isnt an electrician, rigs together water, wind and solar to become completely energy independent. on an remote island. explain to me again, why dont we manage to do this as countries with all our knowledge, money and resources?

[@sigiloXXX]

Because he had the wife to bounce his ideas off and clarify what and how he'd be able to do it. The system isn't working. They didn't even have the money and resources in those days, just a final sense of freedom and common ownership. We need to get back pre-feudal.

[@elmafias6141]

Because we are too many on this earth, and also half they story is not being told

[@marianfrances4959]

Greed

[@WJWatt]

Just a pity so much of what was told was told by those that had moved to the island, with only two locals who spoke, and knowing quite a few of the locals, they totally missed out the characters who I got to know and still keep in touch with, great people and a great craic once they get to know you, and you them,

[@alk6225]

it´s a great story with a big but - the purchase of the island and the funding of the alternative energy was raised from external sources, ie.the tax payers of the UK more or less - lucky islanders!

[@ZenioDovgj]

100% This is completely unaffordable for a regular person, especially without a job or by farming a small garden. Something similar can be achieved when you work in a country with good salaries, and then relocate to a cheap country, with cheap land and relatively cheap builders and services. Then there is a chance to create a little paradise, but nothing near like a community from the video. Or you must have a house from your parents, like in the video, for a season of 15k per month from tourists. And at the same time get a 300k from crowdfunding. I would never get a hold of such free money to start my own business 😂

[@sigiloXXX]

Tax payers? I don't think the people who chipped in didn't see it as taxation but enabling a community to be free from Lords and Landladies. "The Trust manages and stewards the island's development for current and future residents. After years of instability, neglect and lack of secure tenure, the Isle of Eigg Heritage Trust was able to purchase the island on 12th June 1997, largely due to the generosity of around ten thousand members of the general public."

[@sigiloXXX]

@@ZenioDovgj You lack the imagination for this to be viable because you weren't born on a tiny island that belonged to a careless owner.

[@alk6225]

@@sigiloXXXreally? I remember £10M - so I don´t think your maths stacks up. and who pays for the ferry to delivery the post and food? the postage stamps stuck on the envelope?

[@dougaltolan3017]

​@@alk6225Hi.... Totally valid questions.. The Buyout price was £1.5 million, a very large chunk of that from 1 anonymous donor. Since then there have been several major projects funded by UK government, Scottish government, EU, and many more. A new pier to match the new (then) ferry so the trip didn't involve ship to boat transfer at sea. The power grid construction and many expansions, though some of those expansions were paid for by mobile phone service providers. Eigg Electric frequently hosts visits from universities and other would be of grid communities. There is a new community hub just finished, as the population increases (~2 to 3 a year), the old facilities were very cramped. Also, it's not just residents that benefit from all this, the visitors (which often outnumber residents) also enjoy them. As for freight, CalMac charge standard commercial tariff, post is just the same but 3~5 days slower, and large freight costs £1,000 per sailing of a local landing craft that could carry ~4 x 7 tonne trucks (so you make sure its full!) Heating is local wood, shipped wood pellet, coal and kerosene, the latter 2 can only arrive via the landing craft, so there's a premium price for that. Cooking is mostly propane which costs ~20% more than mainland.. So, compare that to mainland life where electricity is supplied via tax payer funded national grid, sewerage, water, and gas infrastructure originally built by tax payer money.. Note we have to build our own water supply and sewerage management, there is no gas on tap.

[@liambyrne591]

Why purchase it just stop paying the landlord that's what happened in Ireland

[@lizparker9090]

Bot voice

[@lm_b5080]

so is this the libertarian dream?

[@erickverbiesen6577]

In essence I would say so, these are people that form a community with common goals, no need for government interference, but I wonder if high technology could be capable of being produced here.

[@henrydemonfreid1985]

but the island council control the islands population, the services, everything... so can't be...

[@walther2492]

No, it couldn't be further away from libertarian. It's actually basic communism.

[@user-gq5kc1ow7k]

this is so distorted - mainlanders paid for the whole thing, the island itself, the alternative energy! utopian is correct as it is totally unaffordable to everyone else in the UK

[@walther2492]

No, they didn't. You either did not listening, or you didn't understand.

[@user-gq5kc1ow7k]

@@walther2492 sure £10M out of a few hundred pockets.....would have been cheaper to run off duracell batteries

[@patriot6251]

totally ruined by the lady continually speaking French yet had a perfectly normal conversation in English, what are you trying to prove when no one else speaks it apart from that what a wonderful way of your life

[@walther2492]

arte is a French-German public service channel dedicated to culture. They produce content for both countries and of course everyone at arte speak French, German and English. So its logical that they speak to their interview partners in their native language if native speakers of French and German are involved, because their audience consists mostly of French and German viewers. The rest will be dubbed in French, German, or in this case English.

[@supplegrey3613]

❤