<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="6354908" type="LOCATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="maldives">Maldives</keyword>' resorts are often considered paradise on earth.</li><li>But for staffers, who live tucked away from guests' sight in the middle of the island, <keyword id="21459" type="CITY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Resort">resort</keyword> life can come with hard realities.</li><li>Pontiac Land Group is trying to change that by creating a staff campus on an island of its own.</li></ul>Kevin Willis has worked at three different Maldives resorts. Currently, he's a learning and development manager at Patina Maldives, a new luxury resort that's replete with all the usual trappings - overwater villas, a marina with 20 berths for yachts up to 80 feet long, spa center, you name it. And yet, this is the first time in five years of work that he, a staffer, has ever had a room with a sea view.While the Maldives is paradise for guests, it isn't necessarily a dream for resort staff. Many employees face hard realities - among them isolation, cultural clashes, and feeling like second-class citizens - as they work on an island in the middle of the ocean for months on end.Singapore's luxury hotel owner Pontiac Land Group wants to change that. It's launching three new resorts in a string of four islands called the Fari Islands in the Maldives' north Male atoll. All four islands are a quick water-taxi ride away from each other. Three of those islands boast Pontiac resorts - a Ritz-Carlton, a Capella, and a Patina. The fourth island, called Fari Campus, is dedicated to housing and creating a sense of community for staff members of those three resorts.Pontiac is expected to have around 1,200-plus staff members when its Fari Islands is fully operational. The Patina hotel opened in May, followed by the Ritz-Carlton in June. Capella is slated to open in the next 18 to 24 months. Currently about 750 staff from the Ritz-Carlton and Patina live in the Fari Campus, Willis among them."It provides a sense of community and life away from work," Willis told Insider of life on campus, adding that it gives staff a positive opportunity to meet new people who work at different resorts.<div type="image" title="screenshot of Maldives' map shows the Fari Islands on the north eastern side of the atoll" height="1008" width="1344" msid="84813042" hostid="261"></div><h2>Hidden from sight along with the laundry facilities</h2>Many Maldives resorts are designed to optimize the amount of beachfront space available for guests' villas. That means staffers are made as invisible to guests as possible and packed into the middle of the island along with things like generators, waste storage, water treatment installations, and laundry.So even if a developer wants to allocate more land to staff facilities, space is limited - and it often comes at the cost of staffers' wellbeing."A lot of times what happens is staff really don't have [social] engagement," said Gaurang Khemka, founder and design director of URBNarc, the Singapore-based firm that designed the Fari Campus. "They are on an island in the middle of nowhere, living in the center, which is the least prime land, and screened off as if they are something to hide."Nicholas Clayton is the CEO of Capella Hotel Group. He told Insider that at Maldives projects he has previously worked on, worker facilities were always hidden away from sight. "It sends a really wrong message that you're a second-class citizen in a way," Clayton said."Because of space limitations, there has to be a compromise between staff facilities and the equipment planned for the center. So, as much as other [developers] try, colleagues' facilities generally are somewhat landlocked and constricted, versus a blank canvas that we have to create a wholesome village," he added.The blank canvas at the Fari Campus, meanwhile, spans 12 hectares, an area that can fit 16 football fields.<div type="image" title="An ariel drone shot of Fari Campus shows staff buildings with seaviews." height="2533" width="3378" msid="84813044" hostid="261"></div><h2>Creating private spaces for workers</h2>The Kwee family, who owns Pontiac, bought Capella Hotel Group in 2017.It's a third-generation Kwee, Evan Kwee, vice chairman of Capella Hotel Group and head of design and <keyword id="29913" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="hospitality">hospitality</keyword> at Pontiac, who had the vision to build a staff island with a community of its own. At Fari Campus, staff accommodation is spread out on the island in five clusters. Each cluster comprises four three-story buildings and has a courtyard.Khemka, the design director, said it's all about creating private spaces for people."We may want to be in a courtyard to read a book, or just hang out with two staff and not 1,200," Khemka said. "Or, find a spot to make a phone call to loved ones because all the time we are always surrounded by other staff. Staff stay dorm-style, four to a room, or two to a room [for the more senior staff]."Facilities include a jogging track along the beach, the largest soccer field in soccer-crazy Maldives, basketball and volleyball courts, a communal plaza, library, clinic, beauty salon, and retail store. And of course, two other key facilities: a mosque and a staff canteen that "isn't your regular staff mess," said Khemka. It seats 450 people but was designed to create intimate sections, just as in a restaurant. <div type="image" title="Staff canteen can house 450 people but is designed with aesthetic nooks that make it feel intimate." height="1080" width="1920" msid="84813048" hostid="261"></div>"Staff can feel psychologically comfortable and create their own little communities. It's just like housing planning, the idea being to create sub-communities by having clusters of courtyards and smaller spaces," said Khemka.Mausool Abdulla is an essentialist (concierge or butler) at Patina. Patina is the seventh Maldives resort he's worked at. He told Insider he's overjoyed by the "space away from work" and the exclusivity of Fari Campus.Best of all, staff have their own beach. How often can you see an off-duty staff sun-tanning on the beach in the Maldives when guests have been promised a private beach?<h2>Trapped in more ways than one</h2>In the Maldives, staff are often trapped not just by constrained living conditions but by geography, cultural differences, and religious taboos. Fifty percent of staff, by <a href="https://edition.mv/news/1150">law</a>, must be locals - but not all locals work in resorts that are near the capital, Male, or their atoll's capital island, where staff ferries can take them home every day. Many do what their foreign colleagues do: stay at the resort, work during off-days to accumulate more leave on top of their 30-day annual leave, then go home once a year."The staff are very trapped. They have nowhere to go. A 10-minute speedboat ride can cost $100, one way," said a former hotel general manager of a resort in north Male atoll, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "Staff must stay inside their compound. They hang out at the staff jetty. There is limited space to hang out elsewhere."He said the walls are so thin that people can hear private phone conversations from two rooms away."The pressure and stress of having no escape, no privacy, can turn little conflicts between staff into big dramas. As a GM, a major part of my job in the resort was managing people's lives 24-7," he said.The isolation that comes with the job has also led to <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/opinion-why-is-maldives-emerging-as-hub-illicit-drug-trade-28848">drug issues at some resorts</a>. On some local islands, he said, there's a black market for alcohol and drugs. The going price for a bottle of beer or a small piece of heroin is said to be $7. "If you have a gram of heroin or a bottle of beer on you, which is easier to pocket? So any staff could be sitting here with a month's supply of drugs," said the GM, noting that he experienced two or three cases in the three years he worked for the hotel.There's also the matter of cultural clashes. The GM said he oversaw a team of 15 foreign nationalities, a cultural diversity that puts to test even the most tolerant and accepting of staff working in a constrained environment.<div type="image" title="Recreation Building at Fari Campus, with a gym and library upstairs and cafeteria and games room below" height="1080" width="1920" msid="84813049" hostid="261"></div><h2>A game-changing vision</h2>Pontiac's Fari Campus stands to be a test of whether a dedicated staff island, effective design and facilities, and the right "programming" can create a harmonious and thriving community for staff. Proposed ideas on staff programs include organizing a bazaar or hosting friendly soccer matches between, say, Ritz-Carlton staff and Patina staff.While it's a step in the right direction, it's not perfect."One improvement [would be] for us to have a training facility on Patina island, as this would save teammates a lot of time in commuting to attend training," Willis, the development manager, said.It's also not the only hospitality chain paying ever more attention to the welfare of its workers."Maldives tourism has evolved over 30 years and living conditions for staff have improved with the entry of more <keyword id="6356001" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">international</keyword> chains and the tourism ministry's regulations on staff welfare," said Ibrahim Nizam, CEO of The Grand Associates, a firm that helps investors invest in the Maldives. "A few resorts even have a pool for staff." Capella's Clayton declined to reveal the cost of developing Fari Campus but said "it's consistent with the investment to build and run a luxury resort in the Maldives." In other words, it wasn't cheap."The strategy behind the campus is about creating a healthy, productive environment for colleagues," Clayton said."But from a cold business standpoint, we are looking for a competitive advantage," Clayton said. We want our three hotels there to provide superior service over the competition." Editor's note: If you're an APAC-based freelancer who wants to write stories like this one about hospitality and tourism, email me your pitches at lbatarags@insider.com.

Maldives resorts are paradise for guests, but some staff say they feel like second-class citizens. One hotel giant is trying to change that.

By Manik Gupta New Delhi, Apr 6 () Maria sits in an Alpine meadow, guitar in hand and the Von Trapp children around her as she strums a tune. And no, this is not the "Sound of Music" with the much loved governess teaching "Do-Re-Mi" to her wards but giving lessons on the A-B-C of how to deal with COVID-19. The colour is sepia, the mood nostalgic but the tone urgent as Maria (Julie Andrews) croons, "Let's start at the very beginning, a sore throat, a cough in Wuhan", and goes on to talk about how the pandemic progressed and the necessity of social isolation – all to verse and the tune of the all-time favourite song.The 'corona cover' of the famous song was shared on YouTube by Shirley Serban from New Zealand who captioned it "Sound of a Pandemic", reportedly garnering millions of views. Back home in India, artists, amateur and professional, are joining the global chorus, sharpening their creative edge as they bring out covers and originals on the pandemic.Rap, spiritual, soft, parody, Punjabi folk and even 'cringe pop', different genres of music are synchronising chords to reach out to people through YouTube and social media channels. There's a ready audience. India has been under a three-week lockdown since March 24 and millions are confined to their homes to contain the spread of the disease that has infected more than 4,400 people and claimed at least 114 lives. Funny, informative and sometimes plain silly, the songs are sending out their message in different languages.Indie band Friends of Linger frontman Sharif D Rangnekar has put out an original composition on social media. Titled "I will see you on the other side", the song is aimed at giving hope to quarantined souls."The news of coronavirus outbreak got me all worked up and paranoid. And I was in this mode that no matter what we have to come out of this. So one day while sitting at my home, I had this tune in my head, I did the basic instrumentation, and recorded the song in one go -- two hour maximum," Rangnekar told . "The song is basically me telling myself, and others, that we will overcome this. We just need to hang in there and do the basics right -- like washing hands and not going out," he explained.Veteran singer Narendra Chanchal has sung a 'bhajan' on the pandemic.Topping the popularity charts is his 'bhajan' "Kitho aaya corona? (Where did corona come from)"."Dengue vi aaya, Swine Flu vi aaya. Chickunguniya ne shor machaya. Khabre ki-ki ho na ... O, Kitthon aaya corona? Maiya Ji, Kitthon aaya corona? (There was dengue, there was swine flu. Chikungunya created some noise, too. All of it made news, but where did corona come from? Tell us dear lord)," are the lyrics of the hit song in Punjabi.The song is from a religious gathering in Paharganj in Delhi.A group of women singers in Rajasthan sent out the same message through a four-minute video. "Corona bhag ja, Bharat me tharo kain kam re, Corona bhag ja," are the opening lines of the song in Rajasthani. Rapper and musician Baba Sehgal, who initially decided not to write a song on the outbreak as it was a "sensitive" issue, gave in to the temptation after he saw Prince Charles doing the traditional Indian greeting 'Namaste' on TV.The 54-year-old rapper is now out with not one but two songs on the coronavirus.His songs, "Namaste" and "Rab Rakha", promotes "self-isolation", "vegetarian food" and urges people to stay home and not break the chain. It also requests everyone to adopt the Indian salutation to greet each other to protect themselves against the highly contagious virus.Prince Charles,71, who tested positive on March 25, has recovered from the disease. 'Cringe pop' star Dhinchak Pooja, an internet sensation, is also taking on the virus with her song "Hoga Na Corona". The song is loaded with all the dos' and don'ts' one needs to know to spread the contain of coronavirus.The video, which has already garnered over millions of views, shows Dhinchak Pooja surrounded by a group of men and women dressed as doctors and with masks dancing out-of-sync."Hoga na corona, haath tu dhona, jaldi se sona , time na khona. Tension tum lo na, babu ho ya sona, baad mein na rona, mazaak mein na lo na (You won't catch corona if you wash your hands, sleep early and don't waste time. Don't take tension, whether you are babu or sona, don't cry later, don't take corona lightly)," go the lyrics. Joining the bandwagon is comedienne Jamie Lever who asks pertinent questions through her song, aptly titled "Why this Corona?" sung on the tune of Dhanush's superhit "Why this Kolaveri di?"The song, which starts with Jamie coughing and ends with her sneezing, gets into the dos and don'ts of how to protect yourself from the infection -- mask, hand sanitiser and gloves.There is a deluge of such parody songs, all inspired from hit songs like "Patiala Peg" by Punjabi singer and actor Daljit Dosanjh or "Suno Na" by Abhijeet Bhattacharya.The re-created Punjabi song underscores the importance of washing hands and maintaining distance from those who are suffering from cold and cough with these lyrics: "Corona ne ki pange pate, ghar te saare log baithate (Corona made us all sit at home), for instance, or "Parey Ho Ke Khang Soneya Evey Kar Na Devi Corona"( Go away and cough, else you'll infect me also).Some musicians are looking at societal issues like communal harmony too.Aspiring singer Tejas Ghambir has rehashed a Bollywood song, from superstar Shah Rukh Khan starrer "Chalte Chalte", to make his point. "Ab kahan hai woh saare Hindu or Musalman, jab jaan pe aayi toh dar raha har insan. Dekh lo aur kuch to samjho na corona corona oh corona, ab toh Hindu Muslim band karo na," (Where are all those Hindus and Muslims in these times of coronavirus. Everyone is scared when one's own live is at stake. Please let us understand this now and stop this Hindu-Muslim for once and all)," are the last lines of the song. MG MIN MINMIN

Joining the corona 'band' wagon -- from Chanchal's 'Kitho Aaya' to Dhinchak's 'Hoga Na'

Skipping any mention of controversial issues, Prime Minister <keyword id="6354477" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Narendra-Modi">Narendra Modi</keyword> today asked party workers to follow seven mantras, including empathy and restraint in their conduct, and said people are not content with mere slogans but concerned about how the nation is being strengthened. Delivering his concluding address to the party's National Executive, which saw its president <keyword id="6355521" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Amit-Shah">Amit Shah</keyword> raising concerns over "migration" of Hindus from a communally-sensitive western UP town, Modi made no reference to the controversial issues and instead asked leaders to use power for the benefit of society. He also invoked Maratha icon Shivaji, saying he did not enjoy the fruits of power despite being a ruler and sarcastically added that the country has on the contrary also seen those who enjoyed the fruits of power without legitimately owning it, a veiled dig at the Gandhi family of the <keyword id="1575" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Congress">Congress</keyword>. 

	The Prime Minister referred to the party's win in Assam and growth in Kerala and West Bengal and had a word of caution for its leaders and workers. 
 

	"We are witnessing history in the making. We are benefitting from the hardwork of crores of workers for over many decades in building the party. We are in power in the Centre and many states as well. We should not get affected by this power but think as to how we can use this for the society's benefit. 
 

	"There is a need to strengthen the nation. People are no longer satisfied only with slogans. They are concerned over how the nation is being made strong," he said. 
 Briefing reporters about Modi's speech, Finance Minister <keyword id="42575" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Arun-Jaitley">Arun Jaitley</keyword> said the Prime Minister also laid down seven mantras for party workers to follow in their conduct and policy. 

	"Sevabhaav, Santulan, Sanyam, Samnway, Sakaratmak, Sadbhavana and Samvad (Service, balance, restraint, coordination, positivity, empathy and dialogue)... The Prime Minister stressed to the workers that all these seven traits should be reflected in their conduct and policy," Jaitley said. 
 

	He had earlier used the word "sadbhavna" (harmony) but later clarified that it was "samvedna" (empathy). "To sum up, the message from the National Executive is that when the party's political power has grown, this power has to be used for the society," Jaitley said. 
 

	To a question over what was the provocation for Modi to lay down seven point mantra, he quipped, "politicians make well-considered statements, not necessarily under provocations."

PM Narendra Modi outlines 7-point 'mantra' for BJP workers

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Since January, TikTok users have seen videos about a commune in Tennessee on their For You pages.</li><li>The Garden is a 12-year-old collective-living community focusing on a "low impact" lifestyle.</li><li>Members of The Garden have dealt with harassment online, with some leaving the commune.</li></ul>In January, users scrolling through TikTok started to notice videos inviting them to join a commune on their For You pages. Half a dozen accounts featuring a red-headed Brit, a man with a tear-drop tattoo, and a woman with a matte of dreadlocks calmly invited strangers to visit 8967 Galen Road in Lafayette, Tennessee."You're welcome to come at any time and leave at any time," one of the TikTok users, TreeisAlive, said in a video that has been <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@treeisalive/video/6934690429220818181?lang=en&amp;is_copy_url=1&amp;is_from_webapp=v3ebapp=v3">watched half a million times</a>.These short videos offer a snapshot of life at The Garden, a community devoted to a "<a href="https://thefreegarden.org/low-impact-living/">low impact</a>" lifestyle that composts and recycles everything on site. While the TikTok posts were meant to attract like-minded, ecologically friendly users, hundreds of thousands of digital bystanders were served the videos by TikTok's algorithm. The unexpected attention threw the community into disarray.While some viewers have accepted the invitation and visited, others have questioned the commune's motives, labeling The Garden a cult. Now, some of The Garden's inhabitants say they are facing harassment and are fearful of legal intervention.<h2>The Garden grew out of the Rainbow Gathering movement</h2>The 21-1/2-acre plot of land located near the border of Tennessee and Kentucky has been providing off-the-grid housing to those tired of the outside world - dubbed "Babylon" by its inhabitants - for the past 12 years. <a href="https://thefreegarden.org/">The Garden website describes</a> the area as "a place to sprout, bloom, and grow in harmony with nature," with a purpose as a "network of mutual aid and a hub where traveling people and caravan communities can collaborate at."The collective was started by <a href="https://rainbowgatherings.org/profile/patrickmartion">Patrick Martion</a> as part of the Rainbow Gathering movement, a congregation of people who assemble for weeks at a time to live in remote places. The Garden was originally named "Shut Up and Grow It" with the message of living off the land and off the grid. This appealed to "addicts and people without anywhere to stay," Martion said in an interview on YouTube."I had this vision where we'd get this land, I'd put it out there on the internet and let people know what we were planning on doing, and that people would flock to it," Martion said in the video. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/388751901308125/about">A public Facebook group</a> created in 2015 and blog posts from 2016 <a href="https://thepeoplesprojectblog.wordpress.com/2016/05/07/shut-up-and-grow-it/">showed life on the commune</a> and invited others to visit. Since the beginning, they have published their address online.According to records, Martion purchased the plot of land in 2009 for $52,500 and is the sole owner of the property. He has paid $80 a year in taxes on the <a href="https://www.realtytrac.com/property/tn/lafayette/37083/8967-galen-rd/225187201/">land since 2015</a>. Martion did not respond to a request for comment.Over the years, a rotating group of wanderers and eco-friendly visitors have come to stay. When 60 people stayed for two months, Martion said in a YouTube video that it put "a strain on our water system and outhouse." He says at times the group size approached 100 members. Over the past decade, Martion has recruited others to come through <a href="https://m.facebook.com/groups/388751901308125">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://thepeoplesprojectblog.wordpress.com/">blog posts</a>.The TikTok videos show the compound's buildings and landscape, which are constantly evolving with new structures as residents with different interests and needs pass through. There's a barn for gatherings, compost toilets, a showering hut, an office building, a kitchen, a chicken coop, a greenhouse, and a schoolhouse on-site. For lodging, cabins or recycled buses are available. One of the oldest structures is a library full of old books and magazines.Chores like building, farming, and taking care of the animals are divided up among those staying there. All the food is grown on-site, with every member eating mostly vegan, with the goal being to live off the land in an ecologically sustainable community. To discuss issues on the collective, The Garden has established a committee that meets every Wednesday and Sunday.When new people show up, they can stay for 10 days before needing council approval for a longer stay. Anyone who has stayed at The Garden for over two weeks can ask anyone new to leave. According to a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/388751901308125/permalink/973969156119727">2018 Facebook post from Martion</a>, the rules were created "to help build a sustainable alternative to the mainstream society by living simply, cooperating to provide our own necessities, and contributing to the minimization of the need for money."Outreach on TikTok appears to be working. Rel Gumson, a member of The Garden who spoke with Insider, said about 40 people had shown up after seeing it on the app, with 10 to 20 people having prolonged stays. She said there were currently only 30 people in the commune.<h2>TikTok has attracted eclectic personalities to the commune</h2>A collection of interesting people with varied backgrounds live on the commune. The TikTok user TreeisAlive has amassed 76,000 followers since he started posting in late January and was the first and most successful member of The Garden on TikTok. Insider has agreed to identify him by his username because of harassment concerns, though his identity is known. Born in Liverpool and growing up in Ireland, he says he busked on the streets of Europe, toured Africa, and visited communes in Costa Rica before landing in The Garden.Five years ago, he says, he stumbled across his first taste of communal living at Rainbow Gatherings, which he described to Insider as a "load of hippies living in the woods, cooking over fire, living in tents, and playing music.""That really changed me - I started to understand who maybe I am more and more as an activist and went vegan," TreeisAlive said. "I've been trying to figure out how we can de-escalate the impacts of climate."Through these gatherings, TreeisAlive found The Garden, where he's been living for the past two months with a goal to "showcase sustainable living and really make an impact on climate change." It was his idea to start a TikTok account - he had always been interested in video editing and has a YouTube channel that he's been posting on for the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/AstroKidz/featured">past three months</a>. The second-most-subscribed-to TikTok account at The Garden belongs to Rel Gumson, with 42,000 followers. Contrary to Tree's positive, vegan-focused mission, Gumson is a lot more controversial on the app. Her videos feature<a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@rocknrelmusic/video/6935432371986631942?lang=en&amp;is_copy_url=1&amp;is_from_webapp=v3ebapp=v3"> candlelit seances</a>, <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@rocknrelmusic/video/6938926732636458246?lang=en&amp;is_copy_url=1&amp;is_from_webapp=v3ebapp=v3">a skirt made from the carcass of her dead pet dog</a>, and an eerie video of her passing around a wine-filled <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@rocknrelmusic/video/6936015847886523653?lang=en&amp;is_copy_url=1&amp;is_from_webapp=v3ebapp=v3">jug labeled "Kool-Aid"</a> (which she says is a reference to the 1960s movement of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh2kK5IfS-8">the controversial figure Ken Kesey</a> and not the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/crime/jonestown">massacre at Jonestown</a>).Gumson has lived at The Garden for four years, previously selling art at music festivals and working customer service at a grocery store. Asked why she preferred the off-the-grid lifestyle, she said, "I just don't like electricity, and I can feel it when it's around me." Those who live at The Garden have access to generators and an internet hot spot."I've always been kind of into just theater and stuff like that, so it's fun to make TikTok videos," Gumson continued. "We're busy farmers, so it's a little ridiculous for us to even be on there, and it's consuming."<h2>The commune attracts people who say they don't fit into mainstream society</h2>Anyone can come to The Garden, and background checks are not conducted, though the group has the ability as a 501(c) nonprofit."We're pretty good at mediating the people who come through, so there isn't much disruption within our community because we all communicate really clearly to each other," Gumson said.Blake Thomas, a former member who stayed at The Garden for three weeks in March 2020, said in an interview with Insider that the "clique" of those staying there was "creepy" and that there were "9/11 truthers, anti-vaxxers, and Q-Anon believers" at The Garden.While no COVID-19 cases have been confirmed at The Garden, the county where it is located, Macon County, does not have a mask mandate, and those at the commune are not forced to wear masks. Gumson has shared memes on Facebook calling masks "<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=3003560843074087&amp;set=a.1016140966021242124">mind control devices</a>" and claiming the "<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=2686215648317157&amp;set=a.13881879314532753275">virus is engineered</a>."Asked about how she feels about the virus and masks, Gumson said: "I recognize it and I feel for all the people who are being affected by COVID, but I'm trying to not instill that fear within myself. I feel like fear and negativity feeds off of itself, and I feel like if you think those kinds of thoughts, it's going to come."According to Gumson, children have lived at The Garden at various times. She says their parents believe in "unschooling," or learning through natural life experiences and not with traditional school.One of the most prevailing storylines about The Garden stems from a livestream in which TreeisAlive said a feral cat was eaten by members of the commune. In a now-deleted Facebook post, Martion said that the cat was shot after they failed to trap it and that it "tasted like chicken.""If you're going to kill it, you should eat it," Gumson said. "I don't see why somebody would kill an animal if they're not going to eat it, if it's edible."<h2>The Garden is seen as a cult by some TikTok users, who are fighting against it</h2>An entire community of TikTok influencers believes The Garden is a potentially violent and unsafe cultlike environment. Being in a cult is not itself illegal since speech is protected under the First Amendment. <a href="https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/cults-and-law-discussion-legality-alleged-cult-activities">Law enforcement focuses instead</a> on groups' activities and any specific behavior that could be harmful."The address is publicly listed and they're advertising it in an idealized and unrealistic way to a young body on TikTok," said Renee Worley, who runs the 16,000-follower <a href="https://m.tiktok.com/h5/share/usr/199840505516519424.html">TikTok account Cultmaker</a>. "They've essentially doxed themselves on a volatile platform that a huge large young audience like TikTok, it's kind of wildfire waiting to happen." TikTok accounts like Worley's have made videos warning people against visiting The Garden. On the chat app Discord, entire channels have been created to chronicle each member's online presence and attempt to uncover wrongdoing.Over the past three weeks, some TikTok members overstepped the boundary between willful observer and active saboteur, sending hateful messages to TreeisAlive, Gumson, and other members. Worley has now "stepped back" from making videos about the commune so as to not cause "any more harm" or to "start a witch hunt.""They just need to be more responsible about who they're advertising to," Worley said.Most TikTok accounts have moved away from posting about The Garden, but not all. On March 8, Edie Santos, who runs the 260,000-follower TikTok account Book of Edith, told Insider that she called US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on TreeisAlive."He's abusing our visa system," Santos said. "If you're going to come here, be respectful. Contribute to our society, be a respectful person, but don't prey on people during the pandemic, in the middle of an economic recession." <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@amillandbritt?lang=en">Amillianze and Britt Livingston</a>, who have more than 18,000 followers on TikTok, moved to the commune at the start of the pandemic with their two children after their business closed down. They told Insider they recently left."Our family has suffered greatly from the death threats and general chaos surrounding where we once called our home," they said over email. "It's heart wrenching and scary."The main three accounts for The Garden have either stopped posting altogether or stopped sharing information over the past two weeks. According to Gumson, they are taking a break from posting because they "just can't deal with all of that drama on there."<h2>Members of The Garden say they want to get back to basics</h2>One of the most common threads among commenters and onlookers is the question of whether The Garden is a cult. Though the bits and pieces might look odd to an onlooker, there's little evidence to prove it is."We don't define ourselves as a cult - we don't force people to stay here," Gumson said. "We don't force any kind of belief system on people."The harassment and attacks have scared TreeisAlive, whose brother said he was "terrified" over being deported and had "completely locked himself down" because it's "so dangerous." On Wednesday, <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@treeisalive?lang=en">he returned to TikTok</a> after a two-week hiatus."All we're trying to do here is grow food and educate people about community living and how to be self-sustainable," TreeisAlive said. "It's strange for us to have this experience where we're feeling like we're being attacked for trying to help people, to educate people about self-sustainability and off-grid living."

A free-living commune in Tennessee used TikTok to attract new members, but the strategy may have backfired

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image">Tiksa Negeri/ReutersConstruction workers work on the roof of a new building at the Mercato market in Addis Ababa on September 11, 2015.</div></div></div>Ethiopia, which has <a href="http://www.afdb.org/en/countries/east-africa/ethiopia/ethiopia-economic-outlook/">averaged double-digit GDP growth over the past decade</a> and enjoys <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/us-ethiopia-relationship-strong-but-complicated-/2880154.html">a close strategic relationship with the US</a>, is one of Africa's emerging economic and political powers and an example of a country that's improved its economic fortunes without opening its political space.<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-11/karuturi-challenges-ethiopian-decision-to-cancel-farming-project">A January 11th Bloomberg News story</a> hints at a huge problem the country might be facing moving forward. According to Bloomberg, the Ethiopian government canceled a 2010 lease that Karuturi, an India-based agricultural company, had taken out on 100,000 acres of farmland. Despite making an over $100 million investment in the country's farming sector, Karuturi was accused of breaking its lease agreement in developing only 1,200 acres thus far. But the company claimed that it had received waivers from the Ethiopian government in the past, and said that it did not recognize the project's cancellation.According to Bloomberg, Karuturi had taken over land that the Ethiopian state had sold off as part of a controversial program in which the government leased 3.3 million acres of farmland to foreign investors after allegedly displacing some of that land's original tenants. It's the kind of undertaking that would be substantially harder if Ethiopia were a multiparty democracy, rather than <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/country/ethiopia">one of Africa's most thoroughgoing dictatorships</a>. While Karuturi arguably stood to benefit from Ethiopia's centralized single-party regime, it's now learned the risk involved in pouring $100 million into an opaque authoritarian state.And Ethiopia's leaders, who want both economic prosperity and total political control, might soon find that these objectives aren't nearly as mutually reinforcing as they'd hoped.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image">Tiksa Negeri/ReutersWomen mourn during the funeral ceremony of Dinka Chala, a primary school teacher who family members said was shot dead by military forces during a recent demonstration, in Holonkomi town, in Oromiya region of Ethiopia on December 17, 2015.</div></div></div>Like Karuturi's disappeared $100 million investment, the Addis Ababa expansion plan embodies the perils and contradictions of the Ethiopian regime's long-term strategy of securing internal calm through economic growth and strong ties with foreign powers like the US and China.<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Emperor-Downfall-Ryszard-Kapuscinski/dp/0679722033">As in past eras</a>, the Ethiopian capital is being built up as a showpiece of the country's modernity and development, and as a reflection of Ethiopia's sense of its unique place in the world. Addis has one of Africa's first light rails, <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/201412310161.html">a Chinese-built, 19.6-mile system</a> that opened last year. The city and the surrounding area are home to both of the country's <a href="http://www.cn.undp.org/content/dam/china/docs/Publications/UNDP-CH-Comparative%20Study%20on%20SEZs%20in%20Africa%20and%20China%20-%20ENG.pdf">Chinese special economic zones</a>, industrial parks where Chinese companies get tax breaks in exchange for operating in Ethiopia and hiring local employees. The Addis expansion plan would have incorporated neighboring areas into the capital district, enabling more holistic and centralized urban planning for a rapidly growing and economically vital capital city.But the expansion plan also came at the expense of land in the Oromia Region - and it ended up exposing some of the deepest fractures in Ethiopian society. The Oromo are Ethiopia's largest ethnic group but have been historically excluded from centers of power. Because Ethiopia lacks an ethnic majority (and perhaps because it has <a href="http://www.amazon.com/A-History-Ethiopia-Updated-Edition/dp/0520224795">a 1,500-year history rife with conflict between the country's centers of power and it geographic and social periphery</a>), the country's regions are supposed to receive a certain degree of autonomy under Ethiopia's 1995 Constitution, which actually gives the regions <a href="http://aigaforum.com/articles/constitution-uni-secession.php">a right to secede under certain circumstances</a>.In practice, the center still holds all of the power.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_left"><div><div class="image">Google MapsLocation of Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia.</div></div></div>The current Ethiopian government, which is entirely run by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front, which is descended from the militia that overthrew the ruling communist state in 1991 after a protracted civil war, is among the most oppressive in Africa. The EPRDF regime is dominated largely by elites from the Tigrayan and Amharic ethnic groups. But its rule depends on a baseline of inter-communal harmony - just as it depends on the appearance of progress and economic growth.The Addis plan is one instance in which these two objectives came into direct conflict. Protests over the plan, which Oromo viewed as a land grab undertaken by an oppressive and unrepresentative central government, <a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/ethiopia-oromos-tread-warily-amid-anti-government-protests/3116002.html">broke out in late 2015</a>. The government responded with <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-35261314">a crackdown that killed 140 people</a>, marking perhaps the deadliest outburst of political violence in the country since its civil war ended in 1991.Even if the plan has been suspended, the Addis Ababa expansion push is an extension of aggressive growth policies that are fundamental to the regime's self-image and possibly its survival, policies enabled by strong arm tactics that a country might not accept accept. But the protests showed that economic growth and authoritarianism can't paper over a general sense of frustration.As Jeffrey Smith, head of the RFK Center's sub-Saharan Africa-related advocacy programs explained to Business Insider, the suspension of the plan will do little to reduce popular discontent towards the regime."If the government is trying to head off larger protests and discontent in the country, then it's much too little and much too late," Smith wrote in an email. "During the protests, an estimated 140 people were killed and thousands were injured, opposition leaders and journalists were jailed, and the constitution was shredded ... there has been no accountability for the deaths of protesters and dissent continues to be criminalized and violently suppressed."<div><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image">Tiksa Negeri/ReutersA worker works on the electrified light rail transit construction site in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, on December 16, 2014.</div></div></div>As with Karuturi's apparent ejection from the country, the contradictions of trying to build a robust economy without genuine political freedom or basic transparency are manifesting themselves. But with the Addis plan, the stakes are much higher for the regime.The Oromo protests are "engendering an intensified ethnic awareness that has also revitalized calls for genuine self-rule in the region," Smith writes.That's a huge threat to a government that's itself came to power following an ethnically fractious civil war. "I think leaders in Addis Ababa has gotten much more than they bargained for," says Smith.</div> <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/prehistoric-human-migration-from-africa-animated-map-2015-5">This animated map shows how humans migrated across the globe</a></h3> <div> <div> <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="tmbm81dTpO6aBNx_yCsj-WV1tmRLYQly" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div> </div> </div> </div>

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