So there's always been this clash between what is the public good - that which belongs to all of us in common - and what can be exploited for a private interest.

You're talking serious money already in the bank, and millions of dollars coming in every year.

So there's always been this clash between what is the public good - that which belongs to all of us in common - and what can be exploited for a private interest.

When there wasn't any money involved, for all intents and purposes, nobody gave a damn. But now the land, supposedly worthless, is seen for what it really is: an incredibly valuable asset.

So as soon as the land was worth something and there was money in the bank, all of a sudden everybody got interested in non-discrimination, in who's really going to administer this stuff.

Land began to be seen as something to be owned privately and exploited for private interests, and never was entirely reconciled with the old ideas that land should be utilized in common for the good of all.

Western concepts of ownership and privatization came in and clashed with that. So land began to be exchanged.