[spectre] Conflicting Shoes

Sat Jul 29 11:43:27 CEST 2006

Hello friends,

Since three days a lot of flights roar crossing in the sky of Paris.
Yesterday was really the current day of these most unusual sounds over the
city, specially before 2pm. It reminds the beginning of the war in Irak:
just Chirac having said that of course he will not forbid the US and OTAN
army to cross over FR, the humming began and it lasted all night long. There
was a quarrel yesterday in UK on certain bombs to destroy the deep ground,
but there is more since the beginning strange bombs ye fallen which
transform the bodies of the victims as those in Falloudja.

Two bodies in Gaza identified by a doctor as having received no brightness
(having been scanned), and a journalist to Beirut a correspondent of the
French-speaking radios, who on the return from his office late in the
evening crossed crossed in car a poor quarter of Beirut that was bombed the
day before, where he saw two strangely deformed bodies, and the journalist
says that since he cannot more sleep, the vision haunts him.

What were these weapons? We imagine; yet they wear names in the current
Press.

No problem to meet any family in Israël, I can understand how the war
comforts the warmest relationship between self people but may be the story
of the shoes all the contrary anyway is too much cool to be innocent, so I
am afraid that the story of the loosing shoes in the desert calls any shoes
in return ‹ as they say in Chomsky's letter;-) Happy gran Israel ad coming
with the gran Mid East project.

It is to know that one cannot understand otherness, but at least one can
see, can hear, other selves; strangely there are people who do not see other
people, it appears to be an emerging over passing post modern culture...

Any way it is to know that even one does not see other people, whatever the
people exists that supposes any misunderstanding may be any impacts towards
the walls.

One cannot be a same of what one is watching as otherness, and the symbolic
rule being observed front of strange things as humans, is the primitive
social hierarchy of humans on earth :

    ‹ A Gift offered without giving the possibility of a reverse gift is
considered as an act of power (concerning the sign of God on earth); toward
the sign of God, receiving without possibility of reversing a gift is
considered as an humiliation.
    ‹ Stealing a gift is considered as a crime. To steal a right is
considered to declare a war.

It is well known by the best anthropologists of the gift;-)

Of course, "naturally" (would say may be Michel Serre:)

On 29/07/06 9:18, "Heiko Recktenwald" <uzs106 at uni-bonn.de> probably wrote:

> Nat,
> 
> nat muller wrote:
>> dear aharon,
>> 
>> first of all, i don't wish to be disrespectful in any way...knowing
>> well how reactions on mailing lists can deteriorate into
>> self-righteous and non-constructive replies.
> 
> And what is constructiv?
> 
> What we discussed here, Israels responsibility for the bombs on Beirut,
> the "nature" of the Lebanon, is more or less mainstream.
> 
> It is better to prevent people from loosing their shoes than sending
> them new shoes later.
> 
> The Arabs want Eastern Jerusalem and the other occupied territories
> back, the borders of 67, nothing less, nothing can change this, and all
> Israel has to offer are examples where "land against peace" has not worked.
> 
> Has Dario Fo done anything on that conflict?
> 
> 
> 
> H.
> 
> 
>> however, just coming back from beirut, and with the memory and shock
>> of carnage and destruction still all too fresh, i am mostly bothered
>> by 2 things:
>> 
>> with about 800.000 refugees and displaced people in lebanon (that's
>> almost 1/4th of the lebanese population!); many refugees don't even
>> have shoes to wear, let alone other *basics*. i suspect this is the
>> case in many other *conflict zones*.
>> 
>> your last sentence: * The aim is to present conflicting shoes as a
>> practice, a cultural technology, of which each practitioner is a
>> creator, an educator, and hopefully  having fun*, just strikes a tone
>> which is far too light and frivolous to voice critique on the current
>> situation: forgive me, but i fail to see any fun whatsoever in the
>> hopeless spiral of violence envelopping the middle-east and the
>> relentless killing of civilians.
>> 
>> i would be happy to continue this discussion further with you off-list.
>> 
>> my best_
>> 
>> nat
>> 
>> 
>> On Jul 28, 2006, at 10:39, aha at aharonic.net wrote:
>> 
>>> Dear list,
>>> 
>>> Today,  I will fly into what is practically a conflict zone. As you
>>> might
>>> imagine, for some time now, I have been agonising on whether I should or
>>> shouldn't go  and if I do go, how to be once I am there.
>>> The basic arguments to go are of personal, family, nature.
>>> 
>>> However, I feel determined to do something once I am there.
>>> (..hence, how
>>> to be there..) ³There² being Israel. What can I do? Nothing to change
>>> the
>>> particular situation, off-course. But maybe something can be done via
>>> myself that opens up a certain way for new meanings to emerge. Following
>>> the recent threads on the list regarding the current out burst of deadly
>>> criminal atrocities between palestinians, hezbolla (the party of god)
>>> and
>>> what might be called ³hezb-al-yahood² (the party of jews, otherwise
>>> known
>>> as the state of israel) to name a few - I thought that this practice
>>> I am
>>> about to talk about  might interest some people..
>>> 
>>> Conflicting shoes is, on the face of it, a practice of creativity with
>>> shoes in conflict areas. The initial suggestion is to send shoes to an
>>> address in conflict  zones where the person who receives the shoes place
>>> the shoes in a public place  so that people could , for instance, put
>>> their feet in.
>>> For example, Joe sends a shoe or 2 to Jessica, and she might hammer the
>>> shoe/s onto a pavement in, say, Mogadishu.. Joe and Jessica, might off
>>> course, elaborate on that..
>>> 
>>> For example, worn shoes bare the result of being between your body/feet
>>> and where ever you've been to with them. They bare signs of your weight,
>>> the way you move, and the conflicting pressures between yourself, the
>>> shoe's material/s and the places/surfaces your been through..
>>> Maybe worn shoes in conflict zones might remind some war photographs..
>>> Maybe placing shoes in public areas can point to the notion of
>>> walking in
>>> someone else's shoes..
>>> 
>>> To begin with, there's obviously, only myself and how I see this
>>> practice
>>> going  however what I am about to suggest is only a starting point  or
>>> points rather..
>>> 
>>> So here's the deal:
>>> I intend to stick, glue or cement, used shoes in places I'll be in
>>> Israel.
>>> I could just pick a few of my own old shoes and do that, however, I
>>> think/feel that such a thing will be too personal in a practice that is,
>>> for me, anything but self exploration.
>>> Therefore, this is an invitation to practice this together. Currently, I
>>> think the possibilities are:
>>> a. Maybe you'd like to join the forum at:
>>> http://conflictingshoes.aharonic.net/ .
>>> 
>>> b. Maybe you'd want to pick up an old shoe or two and send it . Use your
>>> imagination as to how you'd like your shoe/s to be placed, maybe the
>>> kind
>>> of environment, maybe your wand to write something on it, maybe you'd
>>> just
>>> rather leave a clean soc in one and an old smelly one in another..
>>> 
>>> I'll try best I can to do as you suggest - if possible..
>>> 
>>> I intend to take photos of conflicting shoes placed - however, it
>>> might be
>>> that I'll use a different way of reflection..
>>> 
>>> Note that I'll be in Israel until the 15th, so if you do send
>>> something it
>>> should come at least 3 or 4 days before that date.. (15.08.06)
>>> 
>>> Name and address to send shoes to:
>>> ron peretz
>>> 13 kikar haganim
>>> beer sheva
>>> 84844
>>> p.b. 7310
>>> Israel
>>> 
>>> c. Maybe you are in a different conflict zone and want people to send
>>> shoes to you..
>>> 
>>> I can't think now of other possibilities - but am sure there are.. Maybe
>>> the forum, http://conflictingshoes.aharonic.net/ , can be used for
>>> that...
>>> 
>>> The notion for this practice has developed  in me within the last
>>> week. I
>>> have made a fair few text versions of this, because I was searching
>>> for a
>>> way to write about it which will feel ³right² - so to speak...  Not
>>> that I
>>> am without any critique about this version... The aim is to present
>>> conflicting shoes as a practice, a cultural technology, of which each
>>> practitioner is a creator, an educator, and hopefully  having fun.
>>> 
>>> Best of wishes!
>>> 
>>> Aharon
>>> 
>> 
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