Interzone report of April 21st 2002

Previous report of March

 

Tonight : Rasta Robert's broadcast 22.00-23.00CET on DFM > <http://desk.nl/~dfm/cast.ram> <http://desk.nl/~dfm/>

 

Hi all,

 

This has been a hard month. Due to the circumstances, I shall concentrate this report today on the human aspect of the Zone.

Jajouka Festival postponed :

In February I had forwarded the announcement of the festival in Jajouka on Friday April 26th & Saturday the
27th. Here is a mail received yesterday infirming the information :

" We have just been requested by the by the Governor of Larache (the area surrounding Jajouka), to postpone The Baraka Festival out of respect for the events going on in the Middle East. As I am sure you are aware, there is a lot of death and suffering happening in Palestine & Israel.. Out of respect for the lives lost and the ongoing mourning, we must agree that it has become an inappropriate time to host a musical celebration in Morocco. In solidarity with Palestine the King of Morocco has also indefinitely postponed his wedding. So, we must likewise postpone the Baraka Festival out of respect for Jajouka's Arab Brothers, and out of concern for the safety of our guests, which we are being told cannot presently be guaranteed by the local government officials."

From the Zone's side, things have been uneasy :

First for the new Zoners recently arrived in Europe, Koulin, http://www.inter-zone.org/koulincv.html , Vasha and Vadimas who are having a difficult time, confronted to similar problems in France and Belgium , as the European structure does not allow them to earn their life, when in their own countries, they cannot do it anymore, due to the economical or political situation , in spite of their abilities and diplomas.

As an international human group, we undergo the consequences of absurdity of some rulers of this world, to their tendency to put up unlivable systems, to create conflicts and problems which lead to human disasters, and to their irresponsibility, I mean their inability to confront themselves to the consequences of their acts, and to give counts to the people they are responsible for.

As a psychiatric nurse, I am sorry to state that in some services where I have worked, some of them would not behave as they do more than 24 hours without being locked in an isolation cell and sent directly to a hospital for dangerous patients, for , well, you know when you come in, but never when you go out...

And I find extremely irresponsible for rulers not to apply to themselves the laws and rules they impose to mankind, a mankind they have, in a democratic society of people who have elected them, the duty to protect, the resources of whom they are in charge of, and whom they are at the service of:

"The hope for the future consists in the understanding of this fact; namely, that we shall always be ruled by those who rule symbols, which will lead to scientific researches in the field of symbolism and s.r. (semantic reactions : reactions bound to the use of words at the emotional, biological colloïdal, etc., levels) ). We would then demand that our rulers should be enlightened and carefully selected. Paradoxical as it may seem, such researches as the present work attempts, will ultimately do more for the stabilization of human affairs than legions of policemen with machine guns, and bombs, and jails, and asylums for the maladjusted." Alfred Korzybski, "Science and Sanity", "On symbolism".

French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen August 26th 1789 :

Article I : Men are born and remain free and equal in right. The social distinctions can be founded only on the common utility.

Article II : The goal of any political association is the conservation of the natural and unprescriptible rights of the man. These rights are freedom, property, safety and resistance to oppression.

For the whole text, which I highly recommend, go to : http://www.geocities.com/interzonelibrary/15DDHCeng.html

This text is the base of the constitution of my country. It's not a eutopic writing, it's the official model which is supposed to structure peoples ' lives, it's the symbol of democracy, as well as the three words : "Freedom, equality , brotherhood". What is a symbol ? "A symbol is a sign which stands for something." Alfred Korzybski. If this text is applied, I mean if its articles are at the base of the laws, of the institutions, then the country which applies this model can be called a democratic one. Now if it is not applied, this text does not represent anymore democracy, it becomes deprived from the meaning it was supposed to have, a fake.

"In the rough, a symbol is defined as a sign which stands for something. Any sign is not necessarily a symbol. If it stands for something, it becomes a symbol for this something. If it does not stand for something, then it becomes not a symbol but a meaningless sign. This applies to words just as it does to bank checks. If one has a zero balance in the bank, but still has a check-book and issues a check, he issues a sign but not a symbol, because it does not stand for anything. The penalty for such use of these particular signs as symbols is usually jailing. This analogy applies to the oral noises we make, which occasionally become symbols and at other times do not; as yet, no penalty is exacted for such a fraud." Alfred Korzybski, "Science and Sanity", "On symbolism".

Now what is the highest value of democracy ? The highest value of democracy is human value, which means that there is no other value over it, no theory, no system, no model, no symbol, no word, etc, worth enslaving people. And certainly not the model of democracy, which cannot be imposed to anybody by anybody, but the application of which depends on our own will.

And this to get back to the problems we are confronted to in the Zone, which are human problems. If the Zone really is the Zone, if the Johnsons really are the Johnsons, then we have to make the level of our acts similar to the one of our words :

"The Johnson Family" was a turn-of-the-century expression to designate good bums and thieves. It was elaborated into a code of conduct. A Johnson honors his obligations. His word is good and he is a good man to do business with. A Johnson minds his own business. He is not a snoopy, self-righteous, trouble-making person. A Johnson will give help when help is needed. He will not stand by while someone is drowning or trapped under a burning car." William Burroughs, The Place of Dead Roads.

So the most appropriate aim of the Zone to me is at the moment to concentrate the energies on solving the human problems in its frame. If European countries really consider human value as the highest one, treat people (not only their own citizens, humans, the whole human specie) according to their constitutions, and give them livable conditions of life, then they are democratic countries. If they don't , then they do not deserve to be called democratic anymore, and very frankly, I do not feel comfortable at all in my privileged situation of European, nor proud of it in the circumstance. I am not interested in being the citizen of countries which exclude people in the name of democracy, nor limits humanity to nationality. Not only it is an insult and treachery to those people, but also to their citizens, who have elected them on the base of their promises, and to the authors of the Declaration of 1789, their ancestors.

Now what does solving the human problems in the frame of the Zone means ? I'd say provide ourselves what we basically need in the present, and work at a solution for future, in applying to the human level the same techniques we have been using at the artistic one.

We know that we create reality: in the Zone, the reports are the account of the reality we create each month since1997, which depends on us. So rather than letting the reality created by others upset us, we create our own, which we decide together, in gathering our means, abilities and energies. Which program are we interested in ?

"The only thing that could unite the planet is a united space program… the earth becomes a space station and war is simply out, irrelevant, flatly insane in a context of research centers, spaceports, and the exhilaration of working with people you like and respect toward an agreed-upon objective, and objective from which all workers will gain. Happiness is a by-product of function. The planetary space station will give all participants an opportunity to function. "

The Place of Dead Roads.

As a mater of fact, here is the reality we created this month, at our scale :

Economy:

Hi Zoners:

If you are searching experiences about new economy, i think you can be interested in this experience of Ithaca (New York State: USA).
http://www.ithacahours.org/

We just watch a very interesting reportaje in TV about this small city. Different communities of interesting orientations living there.

I think Martin can talk about a new popular money in Argentina, a currency alternative to official money.

Best
Cosmodelia

They can make works we can leagaly get and which they are able to make: for instance Koulin is an engineer, graduate in internet technologies. See his CV at : http://www.inter-zone.org/koulincv.html

Publications:

I have printed 20 Taxidermists for the festival of Fillols José Altimiras is being part of , and put it on a CD, which is much much easier than the printing. So this is the first comix on CD, which now is available. The printed version, format A4, cover Clairefontaire toilé, inside bristol : Prix : 16 euros.

The version on CD, format html pages: 8 euros. You can ask izz@inter-zone.org , François Darnaudet and José Altimiras

    1. We gather the Zone writings , including mines and the English anthology "The Time of the Naguals" with illustrations and texts, on a CD, and sell it in the frame of the Zone (as an association of fact, we can make it legally, it remains in a private frame), and send the benefits to Koulin, Vasha and Vadimas.
    2. We can scan your writings and books, print them for you and put them on CD. So this makes them accessible without the brainstorm of the publishing house, they keep remaining your property, and you can give them to whom you want, when you want.
    3. For the CD, to avoid the problem of posting them, which leads to custom fees out of Europe, we can put the files once made in a club, where they are accessible to the whole group. There is a new club, Interzone Agents Only, where we can do that. Then you pick up the files, and record them on your CD burner yourself, which will take 5 minutes. :)
    4. We can also make translation works : some books like Dutch ones are not accessible as long as they have not been translated in English. We can get connected with alternative groups as Ruigoord and propose them to translate their work in English. Same with other languages. Vasha, Vadimas and Koulin can make it with their own languages and the ones they know.

PIGANI.CHRISTOPHE is looking for a French translation of The Place of the Dead Roads to buy.

 

  • Post cards :

I have made about 100 different post cards with the Zone's illustrations. You can order them for 50 cents each (1/2 euro).

Music :

 Zone's sites :

 - New pages :

William Burroughs' interview with Susan Sontag : http://www.geocities.com/interzonelibrary/WSB3.html

The Interzone ring at : http://www.interpc.fr/mapage/westernlands/Interzone-links.html has been updated and completed.

Le Taxidermiste: http://www.inter-zone.org/altim2.html and http://www.inter-zone.org/taxiback.html

News of February : http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Crete/9445/News30.html

 Adam Possamai's book : Douze perles Noires, La Raison Selon Janus , Le Misanthrope de la Banlieue , and Dieu est Mort 

Dalton Vrij: VRIJ at : http://www.inter-zone.org/VRIJ.html

In the other Zoners' sites :

Antoine's site : La fin du travail : www.antitravail.fr.fm has been remade.

Rasta Robert <rr@rasta.op.het.net> my broadcast on sundaynight 22.00-23.00CET on DFM
<
http://desk.nl/~dfm/cast.ram> <http://desk.nl/~dfm/>

mubodilefa81374
concert for electronics' scrap with g h o s t h e a d p h o n e s
http://www.dr.dk/nymusik/elektroniske/seneste_elektroniske_koncert.html

phillip_ccnp@hotmail.com new group

Post message:

InterzoneAgentsOnly@yahoogroups.com

Subscribe:

InterzoneAgentsOnly-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Teleferique <info@teleferique.org> vernissage serveur/server opening http://www.home-room.org
http://www.teleferique.org/equipment/chat/ http://www.teleferique.org

jazzresin http://jazzresin.com

Thibaut Poupard site de Gérard Clisson, créateur en arts plastiques résidant à Maulais, www.artactif.com/clisson

 Yahoo clubs :

Zoners' yahoo clubs are beeing changed by Yahoo in groups : see at Information on Interzone, Zone's rubrics, reports, news and clubs from where all the Zone's clubs are accessible.The club The Interzone Coffee House now is at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theinterzonecoffeehouse/

Some good texts posted in The interzone Coffee House this month.

new group InterzoneAgents Only: Post message:

InterzoneAgentsOnly@yahoogroups.com

Subscribe:

InterzoneAgentsOnly-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

 

This report now is on line at http://www.interzone.org/reportapril02.html ; the French version will be on line in some days at http://www.inter-zone.org/reportapril02fr.html

The news since the report of March are on line at : http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Crete/9445/News31.html and http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Crete/9445/News32.html

All the best to you.

Izzy

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