Madagascar Back-o-the-Mountains

"Going Madagascar," an expression I learned today, comes from the world of computer games and means "going into isolation," more or less; it refers to a pandemic quarantine situation in the eponymous game Pandemic II. It means closing out the world beyond.

In no small measure, I've "gone Madagascar" myself, though linked by telecommunications to the rest of humankind beyond the valley. This morning, as I harvested my oranges while keeping a close idea on the price movement in SRS, a good day-trade vehicle, I asked myself how I would fare if communications failed; shortly thereafter, they have!

I have a WAN miniport and we're experiencing strong, cold winds this sunny day; apparently, one of the repeater antennae has been damaged. I can no longer track the price of the ETF, but I suspect the world will not end as a result. And, my but the juice from just two of those big oranges was sweet!

The winter root crops are going well, as are the beans, peas and cabbages. They don't depend upon telecommunications. As for seeds for next year, on August 1st we're having a valley-wide get-together of small producers to exchange open-pollinated, non-Frankenseeds, during a day-long program sponsored by the Agricultural Institute, a fair designed to provide coordination and instruction on how to operate in the various farmers' markets running here in the valley. I will be presenting the finance module in the hope that this will convince the town government or their opposition to fund our hoped-for business incubator and move forward on getting people off the dole and into productive activities centered in our valley.

Will we shut ourselves off from the world one day? Not necessarily, but as far as the swine flu pandemic goes, I feel safe here in Traslasierra. We haven't had much tourism during this winter vacation, and it is my opinion that the idea of tourism as the lynchpin of the local economy is mistaken: we have great productive potential here, but it requires paradigm change to realize it.

Could be we'll have to go Madagascar.