Looking forward to the 2015 Season...with hope and optimism. No need for ‘permits’, tickets or licences!
The simple fact is that the
CGI way of doing ie. getting people happily into
CCs, where applied, works…and works well. This
has been proven over the last few seasons. The
reason it works is that the farmers like respect
and see the benefits in terms of service given,
which is now well documented. The alternative is
to secretly creep in hoping the farmer won’t
come along yelling and screaming, a practice
that has caused all the problems in the past.
Working effectively with farmers by forging
trusting relationships is absolute ‘key’ and
adhering to a Code of Conduct is primary.
Without this, as said many a time before, there
will be little chance of a quality CC visit, (eg.
all sitting around in a relaxed group manner
without the fear of farmer intervention) if at
all, indeed ‘cutting’ has now become the ‘order
of the day’
in mid-season
battle zone Wiltshire, or so it seems.
”With drone technology it is
still possible to take the all-important photo
even without permission to access field.”
We have absolutely no way of knowing how things
will unfold this coming 2015 season in truth…as
always, but if the trend of the past two years
or so is to continue, Wiltshire may no longer be
the focus and if they do get any, which they
probably will they may be trashed, cut or have a
‘No Entry’ sign placed on the gate as happened
before when things get busy. This will make it
much harder for visitors planning a trip to the
UK CCs as far less predictable. Of course we
know CCs are not placed for our convenience as
they may have been to some extent in the
introductory ‘getting to know us’ years
beforehand, in the preceding 2 or 3 decades but
the local social climate has now mitigated the
situation. My feeling is we may need to have a
more flexible and mature attitude towards visits
to avoid disappointment and trouble. The
long-term, die-hard, entrenched-in-old-habit
visitors stuck on auto-pilot, may not wish to
hear all this as fundamentally most are
creatures of habit and change often feels
uncomfortable and can seem inconvenient.
Geography is one thing but respect and boundary
quite another. If we view the Wiltshire area as
a lesson, part of a learning curve whereon all
went terribly wrong, perhaps we should ask
ourselves the question…”Could we do better next
time in the ‘New Territories’…are we indeed
capable of evolution”?
I’m inclined to say…”Yes,
yes, yes, no problemo!” CGI members are
respectful, mobile and flexible…how it must
be…after all, the CCs may keep on the move.
Wiltshire over the years has become host to a
concentration of those hardcore regulars used
to the all-is-familiar ‘easy route’…their
comfort zone where those habits have evolved
together with a cosy long-time social scene
where they even know the pub landlord by his
first name.Their challenge will be adjustment to
the practicalities and unpredictabilities of
visiting these New Territories that could be
just about anywhere.
The local psyche
in new areas away from Wiltshire is relatively
undamaged CC-wise in my experience whereon the
populace has not become battle weary and full of
negatives through land invasion and disrespect.
So in consequence we do need to encourage
positive PR in new areas by doing the right
thing, fostering goodwill and trust to
maintain the status quo if harmony is to be our
goal.
CGI will try to
facilitate access where possible but I dare say
this will not happen in many cases whereupon
prudence and discretion will be required by
others. Upsetting the local UK farmers with
unnecessary antagonism will only bode badly for
all of us in the future and would be
shortsighted. Organised groups of paying guests
or coach loads of people suddenly descending
upon private land uninvited would spell utter
disaster and not be a smart move by any means.
However, the last two years especially were good
examples of how CCs when managed thoughtfully
and intelligently and in this case by CGI, which
amounted to two CCs each year on these occasions1,
was shown to be the perfect working formulation,
helping the farmers and public alike, enabling
100’s of people to happily visit each CC that
would otherwise be denied them. Working
together with these many visitors was an
absolute joy! Good communications and steady
practice resulted in virtually no problems ‘at
the gate’ which is truly remarkable in this
subject. Feedback from the public was almost
unanimous in it’s praise. I mention this not for
reasons of personal enhancement but rather to
wave a flag of hope to people somehow in as much
as we may now have actually found a way
forward with future CC management for the
benefit of all. This would be truly wonderful if
allowed to evolve to maturity as would avoid so
much sorrow. The past years have been hard with
the farmers and visitors alike but this news
should logically have the whole CC community
singing and dancing, but for some, alas, and
strangely, I suspect it won’t.
You just know that you
must be doing something right when you spark the
interest of the farmer’s family and friends!”
Inspecting CC at
Badbury Rings, Dorset 2014 on horseback.
The complete and utter irony of this CGI success
story throughout it’s development you may be
interested to hear, not that this fact is much
of a concern to me personally one way or
another, is that there has been absolutely no
recognition or support from, let’s call
them…’The crop circle establishment’ and the
‘official bodies’ they were involved with who
for some very curious reason cannot…or won’t,
see it. In a way this intransigent view
suggests shallow self-interest may be playing a
role and/or possibly something more
sinister/deep-seated like control issues or
power seeking; that’s unfortunate because this
position would not resonate with the
Spirit
of the Crop Circles…or
me for that matter. But, hay-ho…these ‘front
liners’ may be becoming less relevant in the New
Paradigm…a second generation of more positive
thought and practice may be slowly emerging….
”Francine Blake with a
happy group who enjoyed the CC at Sixpenny
Hadley down in Dorset 2014”.
All
group leaders in my view have a responsibility
to adhere to the Code of Conduct and if access
is not permitted to a field then it could be
said… “Just too bad”… and move on.
The old fashioned culture of
…”Let’s sneak ‘um in quickly and quietly before
the farmer arrives”, lacks integrity and smacks
of low frequency business desperation, usually
commercially / money-driven by paying groups and
is clearly bad practice… often by those with
experience that really should know better by
now. (Sigh…!) My view is that this ‘lack of
insight driven’ old fashioned and ruthless
culture of accessing CCs by any unauthorised
means, as well as emphasising the perpetrator’s
ethics is no longer appropriate (if ever it was)
and does not chime well with the Circles
themselves. After all, majority view of the CCs
as I understand it is the reaching of higher
levels of consciousness? I believe over time
social trends will gradually turn against such
practice…I
do hope so.
At this point I will not
‘mince’ my words. Business and CCs do not
appear to be good bedfellows. Money
corrupts and business decisions compromise
better judgment quite often and attempting to
bribe farmers, as one Dutch led scheme did
recently was, no surprise, a dismal failure
(despite advice from day one the formulation was
badly flawed…it was glaringly obvious but no one
seemed to listen) and was either met with
contempt and anger or the farmer cynically
taking the money with no intention of loyalty
either way. I personally saw this happen several
times…always the same outcome. I know for sound
fact that many people believe the ‘organisers’,
and I use the term loosely, should now just ‘bow
out’ with some humility and grace whilst some
dignity is still intact, which I personally feel
would be the honourable thing to do… to just
move on. Certainly there’s no point persisting
with any sort of ‘permit’ scheme. Additionally
I’m not sure where all this leaves the avid
supporters of said scheme having rejected CGI
from day one. Still, “You pays ya money and
makes ya choice”, I guess. One farmer, and
indeed many other visitors have told me they
resent ‘outsider’
involvement…”They just don’t understand the
English culture do they”… one visitor said. Some
also say we the British are perfectly capable
of dealing with our own affairs. I’ll leave the
reader to interpret all of that. Said scheme
most certainly did not resinate well with the
Spirit
of the Crop Circles
that’s for sure. I think as a community people
have had enough of all that nonsense and would
wish to leave all negativity behind them…put a
line under it and be allowed to focus on just
the Circles in the future.
A note here:
Please do not be charmed into a
Paying
Group unless you are
confident that its leader-ethics are completely
sound. After all there are no guarantees; you
may just end up being disappointed as was the
case last year. Just a thought….
Badbury Rings, Shapwick,
Dorset.2014…a place of utter harmony for weeks!”
I
WOULD REPEAT…the
general consensus of opinion as far as I can
determine, is on no account should people be
duped into buying tickets, permits, licences,
badges or other bits of useless paper promising
access to crop circles…IT
JUST ISN’T NECESSARY…and it infuriates 99% of
farmers.
If money is to be involved the farmer will
organise collection (as in pic below) in or next
to a CC. Alternatively
CGI,
if
farmer appointed will do so on his behalf as
part of a service package. Expect to donate
between £3 and £5 per head ( kids free) which
goes partly towards compensating the farmer and
the remainder helping
a
local good cause or charity.
Now this IS embracing the
Spirit
of the Circles
I think you will agree.
This kind of social
commentary is not easy and that is why, or so
far as I am aware, no other person on the crop
circle scene has bothered (or
dared
perhaps) to address such in a sensible manner.
For those who are unable or indeed unwilling to
see the merit in a change of practice such as
CGI are attempting to implement, as a
consequence of their money issues/self-interest
or is ego-led perhaps, again, that is
unfortunate.
But in the final
analysis most will realise these words are
written with the best truthful intentions, with
no personal gains expected. Thank you for
reading.
Subtext.
1 …
With more resources available this year
hopefully CGI will be able to provide a more
extended service to farmers and the public. The
more resources we have the more we can expand
obviously.
Badbury Rings 2014
Slideshow This CC if you recall raised £2400 for local charity and farmer compensation. You may also remember it was this CC that caused surprise and debate amongst the teachers of the Special Needs school featured in this video after one of their students responded positively to this CC. A very withdrawn and non communicative boy after his visit became animated, changes noted by teachers and fellow students alike. Alas the positive effects decayed over the coming days, but this seemed like a significant event and so out of character for this lad. I suggested he could return but for whatever reason sadly this did not happen. I will in the future, given the opportunity, follow up the potential here. Perhaps others could encourage CC visits as a way in with other Special Needs groups but obviously in cooperation with CGI and/or farmers so as to avoid issues need less to say. |