File puptcrit/puptcrit.0605, message 249


Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 12:06:07 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doris Schaefer <ffantona-AT-yahoo.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] personal note on recycling


Well, hey yourself, Nancy.  I don't mind that tou
disagreed with what I wrote, or even that you didn't
read it.  But I do object that you have suggested my
post did not mention puppetry, which is not accurate. 
In fact, if you re-read the letter I was replying to,
you would see that THAT had dropped the subject of
puppetry entirely to make some rather extraordinary
comments about other cultures.  My reply put puppets
back into the discussion, although you might say it
was not in a prominent enough way.

But sometimes when I see a knee jerk reaction to a
post that might actually make people think about
something, you have to wonder who is the puppet and
who the puppeteer.  This discussion group's name
suggests it is about both puppetry and critical
thinking, not, I hope, plain old personal criticism.

--- Nancy Sander <e.sander-AT-csuohio.edu> wrote:

> Hey!  Stick to puppets or go to a different site.
> Nancy Sander
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: puptcrit-bounces-AT-lists.driftline.org
> [mailto:puptcrit-bounces-AT-lists.driftline.org]On
> Behalf Of Doris Schaefer
> Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2006 1:13 PM
> To: puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org
> Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] personal note on recycling
> 
> 
> 
> People who say they don't want to start a dialogue
> on
> something and then write two paragraphs about it
> tell
> you where they are coming from pretty clearly.
> Instant last word.  But it is mindboggling that you
> can have traveled the world and seen other cultures
> and not learned basic things from the experience
> over
> a period of years.  "Africans wear tire rubber on
> their feet because they don't have shoes; why don't
> they wear shoes," you ask, "why are they such a
> mess?"
>  Other cultures are different.  Since the Western
> powers bear great responsibility for Africa and the
> entire Third World being a mess, because of
> exploitation of resources and even of humans
> themselves as a commodity or slave labor, your
> question is ironic to say the least.
> 
> Not all cultures are "good."  Some are better than
> others.  But some are merely different.  Do you
> really
> think if you had been born in a hut in Africa you
> would be traveling the world as a specialty
> marionettist/ airline pilot?  Or that if an African
> man your age had been born into the life you had,
> with
> your upbringing in the US and your skin color, that
> he
> would have become a shepherd?  I think you would
> each
> have adapted to the worlds you found yourselves in
> and
> liked them.  Maybe you would have become an
> itinerant
> shadow puppeteer, traveling local villages, raising
> cattle and fixing broken radios so your family could
> subsist off the throw-aways of the wealthier,
> lighter
> people who had militarily or politically overtaken
> your ancestors.  Maybe you wouldn't be bitter about
> this, because it was a tradition you'd been brought
> up
> with.  Maybe you would be up early some mornings to
> slice bits of rubber tires  into sandals for your
> grandchildren to wear.  Maybe you would spend part
> of
> the day gossiping in the shade about griots you'd
> heard and puppet shows you'd seen that had lasted
> over
> many nights and connected you and your tribe to the
> gods.
> 
> Or maybe you would have been kidnapped as a child by
> a
> warlord who slaughtered your family and made you
> into
> a soldier for his ragtag army.  You wouldn't be
> important enough for shoes of any kind, just a gun.
> You'd be deliberately and quickly addicted to drugs
> and turned into a humorless and doomed killing
> machine, destroying  whatever peaceful target your
> keeper pointed you at.  Your career, and your life,
> would be bloody.  And short.
> 
> Maybe that African man born into your skin in your
> family would become the pilot and cabaret performer,
> honored at festivals.  Maybe he would have become a
> dentist or accountant.
> 
> In any case, maybe he would look down his nose at
> you
> and those "other" people in those benighted
> countries
> that can't seem to get their act together.  He would
> wear clothes made by their cheap labor, drink coffee
> made from beans they crippled themselves to gather,
> and drive an enormous SUV run on oil that people
> from
> his world have sucked out of the ground of the
> people
> in the other world.  The corrupt and murderous
> leaders
> of that other world would be bribed to ensure the
> oil
> and other products bypassed those other people,
> except
> for whatever unskilled labor you needed to do the
> dangerous or tedious grunt work.  Out of the
> kindness
> of his people, your people could live off the
> scraps.
> 
> At night, the African in your place would sit in
> front
> of his television and wonder where his children
> were.
> In Africa, after the orange sun set, you, in the
> African's place, would set up your shadow screen,
> slide out of your tire tread shows, and perform the
> story of Creation for those you love, just as your
> gradfather did.
> 
> Doris
> 
> 
> --- Jimsan777-AT-aol.com wrote:
> 
> > I don't want to start another dialog over this.
> > I've probably traveled
> > around the world more than any of you...lived on
> the
> > Altiplano in Bolivia/Peru,
> > traveled around Africa, and in many Middle Eastern
> > Countries, etc.   Africans
> > use rubber tires because they don't have shoes. If
> > they are so wise as you
> > state, why are they in such a mess?   I visited
> > Kenya and Tanzania in the mid
> > 70s...While under British rule, the area was
> > vibrant, good economy...Now it's
> > referred to as "A Cesspool."
> > >  I recycle cans, papers, and plastic, but when
> it
> > comes to glue guns...how
> > can you re-cycle one?   I cut the cords off, isn't
> > that enough?   I'm not in the
> > recycling business, I'm in the business of
> providing
> > excellent puppetry for
> > education and entertainment.   i don't have time
> for
> > this.   thanks, but I do
> > not agree with you to this degree of idiocy.   Jim
> > Gamble
> >
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> 
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