Projects on the brink of failure are suddenly fine-tuned into successes. Just as the money runs out angels with checkbooks swoop in to save the day. People facing handicaps are nurtured instead of ridiculed. The progression of their topia from vision to viability constantly forces Gaviotans pay heed to the delicate ideological lines of Colombia's turmoil. We're not ideologues.
All ideologues do is start trouble.
Practically, this ambiguity is an asset. Wiesman occasionally discusses Gaviotas' precarious finances, and its past funders, who range from individuals to the United Nations. But from the beginning, its founders have said if they cannot evolve true sustainability and ultimately pay their own way, they would fail. Early experiments with appropriate technology coalesced into a cottage industry for the construction of low cost water- heating solar panels and wind turbines. A Bogota factory extends the Gaviotas mission into the urban wasteland by employing dozens of former street kids in the construction and sale of such renewable energy hardware.