Loesje International Newsletter July 2013
July 2013
Contents
News
Call for participants
Loesje International Series of the Month
The Birth of Loesje International
Babylution (Loesje Bosnia)
Air sticking
Other cool Loesje texts
Loesje International News
Loesje Poland:
Summer brings on the spirit of true urban fun and Loesje invites you to create big size murals with new texts. Creative text writing in June and July are the first steps to create new Loesje's murals in Warsaw. 14th July, Sunday, 4:00 pm, Park Skaryszewski (close to Rondo Waszyngtona):
Final editing of the texts created at the writing session and selecting the slogans to become murals.
Texts from the session at Sen Pszczoły club could become the ones chosen to be painted on the walls of the buildings located at the right side of Warsaw.
A big mural in Warsaw made by Loesje Poland in 2011.
Loesje in poPolsku:
On the 26th of July Loesje will appear in the newspaper poPolsku. It's a newspaper for Poles living in the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. http://popolsku.nl/
Loesje Bosnia:
Loesje took part in the Babylution. She was one of the links in the human chain that blocked the building of the Parliament and she sensed the enormous strenght of that mass of people who could smell the fear of those reckless rulers of life and death and who realized, for the first time, that real power lay in their hands. Read more about it further down this newsletter.
Loesje Berlin:
"DEINE IDEALE WELT VERRÜCKT GENUG UM DANACH ZU STREBEN" is a Loesje poster and the titles of the project for 48 Stunden Neukölln that took place on the 15th and 16th of July. Loesje Berlin inspired people to create a world they want to live in. The guests contributed with their own ideas and wishes. It was all explored through the five senses.
Summercamp 2013:
With not so much time left it's time to spread the word again about Loesje Summercamp.
This year Summercamp takes place in a school in Lohals, on an island called Langeland, from 27th of July till 6th of August and we like to see a lot of cool Loesje people there. So we can share our stories and enjoy each other's workshops. The school is next to a forest and a only a 20 minutes walk from the beach. Loesje friends can register on the following page:
http://www.loesje.org/summercamp-2013-form
and all the important information they can find at:
http://www.loesje.org/summercamp2013
Call for participants
Missing stories:
If you have a cool story to share about your Loesje group that you would like to see in the next newsletter please write a mail to ralph@loesje.org
New members for the International Board:
Do you like Loesje; the posters, sticking, actions and the fun? Do you have great ideas for the future, a good sense of humour and are you mildly organized? We are looking for new board members to guide Loesje trough the maze of paperwork,to work on future plans and to make sure Loesje stays awesome. If you feel like you could contribute, or if you'd like to find out more about mazes, do not hesitate, and send us a message! loesje@loesje.org
Native speaker for International Series of the Month:
Are you a native English speaker and would you like to check the International Series of the Month once a month please send a mail to: ralph@loesje.org
Loesje International Series of the Month
A big thanks goes to all of you who have delivered cool text proposals. And thanks for voting. Let us know what you think through facebook or by mail. Your comments will be hugely appreciated. And please keep sending your cool text proposals to ralph@loesje.org.
The new Loesje International Series of the Month is also online. Look at http://www.loesje.org/posters
The birth of Loesje International
Last month we had a great history lesson about Loesje International from people who were there. In this newsletter we like to share their story with you.
In October 1989, just before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Loesje brought out a poster with the text: “Oost Duitsland / land van rust en orde” (East Germany / land of peace and order). Loesje couldn't have been further from the truth. Something was going on in Eastern Europa. There was a movement towards democracy. A movement Loesje didn't know about. Also the Dutch and and western media haven't foreseen this turn of events. And suddenly the dictated peace and order in Eastern Europe were torn to pieces. The walls were brought down and Loesje wanted to make up for their judgemental error.
Loesje veterans Maarten and Chiel told us together with Maarten from the Dutch office, about the Loesje journey through Eastern Europe. The girl from Arnhem wanted to see with her own eyes how people in such a repressive political system were capable of finding a way to democracy and she was curious what she could use from their learning experience for the Netherlands.
The documentary “De Rode Peper” (The Red Pepper) tells about this special Loesje journey. Chiel complemented the story in style by showing a slideshow from his personal archive. Loesje's first journey through Eastern Europe took around six weeks and during this time they visited five countries, namely: East-Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary and Romania. The young Chiel in the movie admitted that Eastern Europe was a lot more diverse then he thought before entering the world behind the former Iron Curtain. In East-Germany and Poland they felt a tensed and grim atmosphere, while in Hungary and Czechoslovakia people took more into their own hands after the fall of communism.
The Loesje posters got a lot of resonance in Eastern-Europe. The people Loesje met had found their own way to comment on their regimes.
Loesje spoke with a Polish graffiti artist who represented former Poland as an eagle stripped from his feathers. The artist wore an enormous black mask, to stay unrecognizable.
The journey through Eastern Europe was a journey full of contrasts, mountains of paint, posters and television cameras of the Humanistisch Verbond. At first Maarten and Chiel planned to go there, just the two of them. To look around and to talk with people. But it soon turned out a lot of preparation was needed. Through Dutch organisations and universities Loesje made contact with churches, youth and cultural organisations. That was not always easy. Maarten en Chiel told us that not every organisation was happy to bring Loesje in contact with people in Eastern Europe.The thorough preparation didn't miss its mark.
While typing in hotel room with dim lights the travellers worked until deep into the night. Their fingers turned blue. All their travel accounts would eventually end up in the book “De Rode Peper”. The papers who came freshly from the typewriter were send by diplomatic post to Arnhem.
People in Eastern Europe turned out to be quit open, though a few of them still didn't know how to deal with the new political situation in their countries. One man explained that a president could not change all things in just two months. One of the Loesjes asked him if he didn't think that the people should also play a role in changing things? “Yes, maybe...”In Poland and Eastern Germany Loesje was also confronted with criticism. How could you meet the day with a smile, while the economic and political situation only lead to monotone madness? And why making all these posters with texts on them. Wasn't that simply a waste of paper?
Maarten and Chiel explained that after the fall of the Berlin Wall a lot of help transports went to Eastern Europa. In Romania children stood alongside the road to take the help goods that were offered to them from the truck windows. When Loesje came with their windows closed, their blue bus met with stones.
After the documentary and the slideshow the evening was far from being over. Well, it doesn't happen that often that you can have a chat with Loesje veterans. It was great to hear the similarities between Loesje 1990 and Loesje 2013. Yes and about some differences too. At the end of the evening Chiel and Maarten give a cool advice to the young Loesje members. Try to change things, dare to be impulsive and don’t let the moment pass.
Babylution (Loesje Bosnia)
Loesje Bosnia
On June 5, 2013 about a dozen citizens of Sarajevo gathered in front of the garage exit of the Parliament building in the early hours of the morning. The day before, the exit had been blocked by several cars whose owners stubbornly remained sitting inside, refusing to move despite all threats of towing and police intervention. The reason why these citizens were there, kicking up a bit of a trouble, was the inability of the Bosnian government to pass a crucial piece of legislation that would replace a law on national ID numbers which expired in February 2013. Due to political bickering and the chronic inefficancy of the Bosnian government, all babies born since February have been left without an ID number, meaning that they cannot obtain such basic things as health insurrance, passports and other personal documents. The driving force behind the Bosnian Babylution, as it has been dubbed, was one such baby, the gravely ill, three-month old Belmina Ibrišević, who needed urgent medical care outside of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but was unable to get it since the lack of an ID number meant she could not leave the country.
Throughout the day, the number of protesters in front of the Parliament grew as more people decided to voice their discontent at what they perceived to be a complete disregard for the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina whose welfare mattered less than nebulous ethnic infighting and personal vendettas. Around two o'clock, the number of people was large enough to make a human chain and block all entrances to the building. The MPs leaving their offices walked accross the square and looked on incredulously at the determined mass of people who were hell bent on making them finally do their jobs. At first they smiled, thinking it was all just a temporary circus show, but their faces soon grew much more serious as they realized that the people had no intention of letting them pass – no one was leaving the building! And indeed, no one left until the early morning hours when the police finally managed to evacuate the trapped MPs.
However, the protests did not stop there. More than 10, 000 people gathered on the same spot six days later, issuing an ultimatum to their elect leaders: the law must be passed by 30th June. As the clock ticks away, it becomes evident that the Bosnian politicians will not meet the deadline. Not even the death of Berina Hamidović, another ID-less baby who had to go abroad for medical help, did not have an effect on the women and men sitting in the Parliament building, collecting the highest wagest in the region. But it did have an effect on the protesters who gathered on a silent, spontaneous vigil to mourn the senless death, their determination to persevere stronger than ever.
Text on the poster: Personal ID number which means life
Loesje also took part in the Babylution. She was one of the links in the human chain that blocked the building of the Parliament and she sensed the enormous strenght of that mass of people who could smell the fear of those reckless rulers of life and death and who realized, for the first time, that real power lay in their hands. Inspired by the event and wanting to show her support, Loesje did what she does best: wrote a few posters and stayed there to resist. And there is a lot of resisting still to be done as new protests are scheduled for 1 July. Hopefully, civic disobedience and pressure will yield a result and the Bosnian revolution will have its first taste of victory!
Text on the poster: Personal ID: what is your number
Air sticking
Sticking Loesje posters is exiting, but in some countries this is rather dangerous. You can be arrested and even end up at the police office.
What can you do then? Stay inside? Just keep sticking and don't let anyone intimidate you? Or can you do things differently?
After the latest World Press Freedom Day at the 3rd of May I puzzled over this question for a long time. What can I do to help my international friends, who cannot simply stick posters everywhere because their governments don’t tolerate freedom of speech? During a nice summer storm I came up with the idea of air sticking.
Somehow I ended up with a friend in a little town in the Southern part of the Netherlands. The trains were not riding anymore and we didn't had any stuff with us for sticking posters. Nevertheless we wanted to raise our voice. This little town should know we're there. For the first time ever we went for air sticking. An activist way of playing air guitar.
Doing some serious air sticking in the park
Of course we had to encourage ourselves a bit before entering the main shopping street to do some air sticking on garbage bins. But after resisting the first curious looks and the first posting was being stitched on one of the bins, we simply couldn't stop anymore. Just like sticking real posters people stopped out of curiosity and wandered what we were doing. During those moments you could tell which posters should have hung there. After finishing one electricity cabinet a woman was staring at the cabinet for quite a while. What was it that just happened in front of her eyes?
Air sticking is also a statement. I show that I want to express my opinion on the streets, even when the government wants to silence me. With air sticking the police can only use the air as proof for what you just did. So it's relatively safe and you can even stick posters on walls, windows and so on.
We made pictures from our first air sticking session and shared it with our friends. Hopefully everyone who goes on an air sticking adventure will do the same. Through social media you can add posters that should have been there. The effect will be longer visible.
Air sticking at a government building.
During our first air sticking session we didn't leave any traces, but the reaction from the people was already worth the effort. I see it as a cool live concert which will be over in two hours. But those two hours can be very intense and evoke a lot of emotions. So you can feel good about it weeks later.
Of course air sticking is never a replacement for real posters, but an alternative way to express your ideas on the streets when it gets really dangerous. Or when you just forgot your stuff for sticking posters.
Other cool texts
The texts which didn't make it to the Series of the Month. Nevertheless they deserve a place in this Newsletter.
• REMEMBER TO EAT FIVE TYPES OF MUSIC EVERYDAY
• THE US / THE COLD WAR ENDED / BUT NOW THEY ARE HAVING AN ARMS RACE WITH THEMSELVES
• THE PRESIDENT CAN'T SLEEP BECAUSE OF THE PEOPLE UNDER HIS BED
• BEING ABSORBED IN TIME / ISN'T THAT SOMETHING LIKE DAYDREAMING DURING HISTORY LESSON
• CITIZENS ALERT / SOMEONE IS PICKING UP LEAFS
• MORE AND MORE ANIMALS IN THE CITY / ISN'T THAT A DIFFERENT WAY OF LOOKING AT PEOPLE
• NATURE IS THE BEST SHOPPING MALL / YOU FIND EVERYTHING YOU NEED IN IT
• SPOILSPORT / ERDOGAN DOESN'T UNDERSTAND YOU SHOULD GIVE MORE THAN ONLY BREAD
Look out for the next International Series of the Month.
