[EdwinSm]

In a small way, some 20 years ago we helped save a small rural school, for a few years. We moved into the area and wrote in time that we wanted to place our children in a village school. That letter, promising two more children, was enough to allow the school to keep 2 teachers instead of dropping to just one teacher for 6 classes!

Some years later the school closed and the organisation I work for bought it from the local government. The price offered was much lower than someone wanting to use it for a summer "cottage", but we got it because we promised one or two waged jobs to go with it, and allowed the local people to use the main meeting hall occasionally.

I guess this was only a partial success, as now any children are bussed to the nearest town for school, but our family helped in slowing down the decline of an small rural village, but we could not stop it.

Now I am living in another declining rural area. This was one of the first inhabitated areas in the country (so has a long history of pre-oil times) even if it is a island community. Around 1900 there were over 2 000 people living here, but most were in deep poverty (subsistance farming and fishing). Now the population has dropped to about 890. The services are good because this is a popular holiday place (for mid-summer the head count is around 10 000!). My fears are that before re-localisation takes hold the government will force the closure of services in the name of 'efficiency' and we will be left stranded.

I am doing distance work, so I have brought one job with me, but it might not last much longer and could not be transfered to a local person if I stop working. This has been good for the community tax wise (local tax here is mostly from an income tax system). Of less advantage has been my determination to buy local where I can, but as far as I can tell most of the money quickly leaves the community, as most of the goods are from elsewhere. Only a few food items are local with the small supermarket buying from local farmers where possible (limited supply).

I feel I am doing what I can to help the survival of the community I am in, but much of the time it feels like a loosing battle and what little there is left out here is being sucked into the cities. My betting was that this was a good place to survive (rather than flourish) in an era of almost no oil, but there is a chance the community could collapse before that time and I would then have to face a lonely old age (but not too long if all the services have moved away!) or a move to the city.

[Newfie]

Ed, give us some idea where your too.

Just rough.

[EdwinSm]

I am in Finland, although originally (sort of) from the UK.

[Newfie]

OK, me Mum was from Newfoundland. I see some of the same stuff. They are still closing down small communities, but only slowly now.

Also, Newfoundland once produced a large portion of Europe's protein, now they import over 95% of their food. They could go back to more local farming, and it may become easier as climate changes, but it will be a long slog.