CAIN AS A BRAND NAME FOR HIRE
21.10.2008 Written for, and Recorded on
Yuval Meskin's Israel- radio Holiday
program of songs and metaphors
based on the Bible. Hebrew follows the english
Cain contains our essential history and fundamental
Existence as human beings and as a people.
Cain is the real us. Adam and Eve's eldest son was
born in Genesis 4 and Eve declares, “Kaniti -Acquired!”
[in a play on words on the Hebrew cain,]
"I have acquired a male child with the help of the Lord”.
With these words, she essentially determines the history
of the rise and fall of consumer societies throughout ages.
Eve has no futuristic declaration determining fate when
she gives birth to her other sons Abel and Seth are born.
In Genesis 3, the Lord punishes the mythological couple
for tasting the forbidden fruit, and in Genesis 4, the meat
meal served up by Abel to the Lord is preferable to the
organic vegetarian meal offered by Cain (which as we
know is more expensive).The battle for the tender mercies
of the client (Omnipotent God) is actually between two
restaurants. Murder, as we know, is a proven method for
closing down a restaurant. Biblical exegetes, as good
advocates, claim that Cain did not even know how to
commit murder, and that is why the text merely says that
he "rose up against him to kill him."
Here is the world's first plea bargain.
Cain is our true spiritual father, the first in the dynasty that
clearly marks out our lives.The Divine scene also engages
in the essence of our lives in the here and now,
since "Thy brother's blood cries out to me"- our birth needs
a cry, without which we are not defined healthy and normal,
as if we are doomed to have a first cry since then, we cry,
scream and wail our entire lives.
God bargains with Cain on the penalty he deserves,
but Cain, wise with healthy senses, understands that it is
better to be a wandering tourist than to be a farmer on a
limited plot of land. What disturbed him was the mark
placed on his forehead for his protection: be genuine and
not forged, whether it was a stain, tattoo or piercing at
the edge of his nose.
A universe of brand-names was born and set out on its
way to dictate our lives. Our consent to be identified by
our clothing and jewelry is a poor replacement for the
mark of Cain. This is the genuine, a real stuff.
I am a great believer in Cain's method of marking.
I always hope and searched out clear signs in people.
Everyone should be marked out with a consensual,
Outstanding and readable sign: the wise, the foolish,
the good and the evil as well as the one who is too
smart for his own good/ "wiseass."
All should have their professions marked out as well
as their sexual preferences clearly signed.
The scene of Cain's death following a long & successful
'Real Estate' career (after all, he built an entire city),
raises several questions. If the legend is correct that
Lemech the visually-impaired killed Cain because he
thought it was an animal in the brush, then what kind of
mark was it that God
placed on him that did not make it possible for a visually-
impaired person to identify him from afar?
Or perhaps this is the documentation of the very first
fake brand-name? If a brand is a trademark recognized
by all everywhere, then without a doubt, Cain is the true
brand, and the most suited to us more than all the others
that are disrupting our lives. Cain is also ideal because
he is the first mark in the history of consumerism.
The fact that the Mark of Cain is a sign of failure and sin
and of eternal probation has led to its cumulative power.
Cain is worthy of being much more than a Biblical figure:
he must be available for rent to everyone who
understands the wonderful power he embodies.
One last comment, but an especially important one:
Cain is the ancestor and forerunner of statistics as
when the world's total population were 4 people,
Abel murdered 25% of it - so, as of now, violence
is truly on the decline in terms of percentage.
קין כמותג להשכרה 21.10.2008
הוקלט בתכנית רדיו יובל מסקין שירי ת"נך
בקין מתקיימים ומתמצים כל תולדותינו ומהות חיינו כבני אדם- וכעם.
קין הוא אנחנו האמיתיים. קין, בכורם של אדם וחווה נולד
ב"בראשית פרק ד'" וחוה מצהירה קניתי !!! [איש את ה' ]
ובזה למעשה היא מקבעת את תולדות עלייתה ונפילתה של החברה
הצרכנית לדורותיה. לחווה אין שום הצהרה עתידנית קובעת גורלות
כשהיא יולדת את הבל ולא כשיולדת את שת.
ב"בראשית" פרק ג' האל מעניש את הזוג המיתולוגי על שאכלו לו
את התפוח. ובפרק ד' הארוחה הבשרית שמגיש הבל לאל עדיפה עליו
מארוחת קין , צמחונית –אורגנית [שכידוע יקרה יותר.] הקרב על חסדי
הלקוח [האל הכל יכול] ניטש למעשה בין שתי מסעדות. רצח כידוע זו
שיטה בדוקה לסגור מסעדה. הפרשנים כסניגורים טובים, טוענים שקין
אפילו לא ידע איך רוצחים ולכן התיאור מסתפק ב"קם עליו להרגהו"
ועסקת הטיעון הראשונה יוצאת לדרך.
קין הוא אבינו הרוחני האמיתי, הראשון לשושלת שבמובהק עדיין
מכתיבה את חיינו. הסצינה האלוהית גם עוסקת במהות חיינו כאן ועכשיו,
מאז "קול דמי אחיך צועקים אלי" -הלידה שלנו מחויבת בצעקה, שבלעדיה
לא מגדירים אותנו כבריאים ונורמלים, כנידוני הצעקה הראשונה מאז,
אנו צועקים, צורחים וצווחים כל הימים.
האל מתמקח עם קין על העונש המגיע לו, קין חכם, בחושיו הבריאים מבין
שיותר טוב להיות תייר נודד, מחקלאי על חלקת אדמה שגבולותיה נקבעו.
הוא רק מוטרד מהסימון המונחת עליו להגנתו שיהיה אמין ושלא יהיה מזויף,
בין שזה כתם, קעקוע, או פירסינג על קצה האף. עולם המותגים נולד,
יצא לדרך להכתיב את חיינו.ההסכמה שלנו שיזהו אותנו בעזרת ביגוד
ותכשיטים היא תחליף
דל לאות קין, זה המוצר האמיתי. אני מאמינה גדולה בשיטת סימון
קין, תמיד תמיד אני מקווה ומחפשת בבני האדם סימונים מובהקים,
על כולם להיות מסומנים בסימון מוסכם בולט וקריא: החכמים, הטיפשים ,
הטוב
והרשע והחוכמולוג כאחד, יסומנו המקצוע ומהן ההעדפות המיניות.
סצנת מותו של קין אחרי קריירת נדל"ן מצליחה [ בנה עיר שלמה],
מעלה סימני שאלה. אם נכון הפרוש שלמך כבד הראייה הרג את קין
כי חשב אותו לחיה – איזה מין אות אלוהי זה היה שכבדי ראייה לא
מזהים אותו מרחוק ? ואולי זה תיעוד זיוף המותגים הראשון.
אם מותג זה שם מסחרי מוכר לכולם בכל מקום אז ללא ספק קין הוא
המותג האמיתי, והמתאים לנו יותר מכל האחרים המשבשים את חיינו.
גם מהיותו ראשון בתולדות הצרכנות, קין הוא האידיאלי, גם מעובדת היותו
מותג שדווקא כישלון וחטא, ועונש נצחי ועל תנאי הביאו לצבירת כוחו.
קין ראוי להיות הרבה יותר מדמות בתנ"ך הוא חייב להיות ניתן להשכרה
לכל מי שמבין את הכוח הנפלא הטמון בו.
והערה אחרונה אך חשובה במיוחד.
קין הוא גם אבי אבות הסטטיסטיקה . כשבעולם היו ארבעה אנשים,
רצח הבל הוא רצח של 25% מתושבי העולם ,
אז נכון לעכשיו באחוזים אלימות ממש בירידה.
CONCENTRATION CAMPS
AS SITES OF PILGRIMAGE
excerpters from CULTURE UNDER OCCUPATION.
SIONA SHIMSHI
Recently France has joined the activity of converting
concentration camps, on its soil and under its responsibility,
into sites of pilgrimage. They define these sites as ones
which send a double message, dealing with the
understanding of the boundaries and scope of the human
atrocities carried out by the authorities, who were acting
according to the letter
of the law (as opposed to terror groups that acted outside
the law). This is also an attempt to deal with the spread of
Holocaust denial with hope and desire
to inform and educate by exposingthe places where these
atrocities took place, together with appropriate discussion of
the problem of those who were bystanders, so that future
generations will never
allow their political environment to repeat such
events. Germany was not the first country to set up
concentration camps, [1] but as the nation that is primarily
responsible, and has to cope with the internalization of guilt,
for ever, Germany is the model for imitation in rehabilitating
the concentration campsas sites of pilgrimage and study.
20 years ago, Germany began obligating high school
students to study the subject as a precondition for receiving
a matriculation certificate. A tour of a concentration camp
intheir area is part of the study process (allowing the
inclusion into the discussion
of the problem of the 'bystanders', the surroundings
that completely ignored what was happening
on their own doorstep.) This educational activity
has been expanded to include soldiers and officers
serving in the German Army. Anyone who survived
the horror of existence in the concentration camps
and then returns years later, hasno need of a
designed reality to jog his memory.
From the depths of his being, the place as it was
resurfaces at once, as a reality. This is not the case
for those who are being asked to understand and
believe the fragments they see, without the 'sights
and sounds'.The first liberating army battalions
that entered the camps in 1945 could not and
were not expected to think about the future educational
value of those sites. From lack of comprehension of
human nature regarding the importance of preserving
the inanimate findings,
The shocked soldiers rushed to destroy the atrocities.
Their immediate reaction was very human
- a desire to erase from the face of the earth the
unbelievable sights they saw, after they forced all
the Germans natives, living nearby to witness
at what their government and countrymen had
done.Those visits were properly documented in
pictures and film, and they were the last and only
ones to fulfill their educational role showing reality
as it was. For three decades the concentration
camps were cursed sites, until they gained a
cultural revival. They turned into tourist sites.
As such, they have to maintain certain basic
standards to be open to a large number of visitors
all year round. [2] This includes guides, spaces for
lectures and film screening, distribution of
information in many languages, and all the services
required by law for public buildings: access roads [3],
special routes for the disabled, an information center,
a book store with written material adjusted to multi
kinds of visitor 'souvenirs', cafeterias, and clean toilets
,(the real remains of the camp toilets often
shock the visitors more than anything else).
This process requires taking care of the grounds:
preserving the little that exists and supplying the
rest through exhibitions and models. The issue of
preserving the remains of buildings, fences, guard
posts and personal effects in the camps, keep a
large number of experts very busy. Definitive
solutions have not yet been found. Once the 'data
processing' began it could no longer be stopped.
Experts on culture, communications and design
joined the array of consultants. The belief that '
reactive art' and 'environmental art' (art in situ )
can also help [4], led to cooperation with artists.
Another natural step is the competition between
sites, which even includes international
competitions relating to architecture,ideas
and practicalities of rehabilitating the camps,
taking into consideration solutions for all the
issues mentioned here. On the other hand,
there is a danger that a uniform contemporary
language will be created for all the camps [5].
The site managers are on their guards as much as
possible, but the demands are stronger than they
are.Real time is an active and cruel partner and it
has to contend, not always successfully, with
virtual time. The first sites to go up on the web
had a map and historical statistical information
about all the camps within Germany. Today,
the sites have expanded to include tour options,
many photographs “decorated” with warnings
[6] against use without permission.
The expansion of these websites and
accessibility of information, is good and
important, but this might be as well a main issu.
THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS MAY BECOME A
WEB ADDRESS AND THE NUMBER OF VISITORS
MIGHT BECOME THE NUMBER OF HITS
THE WEBSITE HAS AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT
REMARKS
[1] Concentration camps as a system of control and
extermination were first set up by the British
government(1889- 1902) in the South African
Republic as part of the process of taking over the
mineral and gold mines. While the Boer men set
out to fight the British, their women and children
remained on the ranches, the primary source
of food. They were the victims. Claiming
'concern for the families of the fighters' –
a weak pretense for wanting to destroy their
home front support the women and children
were rounded up into 31camps, where the
inmates were starved to death.27,000
women and 24,000 children died in those
camps. Today you can see the remains of
cemeteries adjacent to the camps.
[2] Obviously there are camps which are visited
more than others, but the numbers published seem
somewhat imaginative (Dachau – 700,000 a year).
[3] In 2000 a very daring booklet was published in
America 'Concentration Camps- a traveler’s guide to
World War II sites' written by Mark Terrance and
published by Universal Publishers, after 20 years
of touring and identifying the transportation problems
of those wishing to reach these places. This modest
book, with its photographs and diagrams as been
defined as a must for anyone planning such a trip.
Now this book has become
a very active website:
MARC TERRANCE: CONCENTRATION CAMPS:
A TRAVELER'S GUIDE TO W.W.II SITES.
UNIVERSAL PUBLISHERS. In 2000 another book
was published documenting the comments
in the Visitor’s Book at Auschwitz.
[4] Unlike the representative monuments for
countries and communities victims that were
put up in most camps over the years, there
have also been referrals to artists identified
with appropriate environmental works.
These pieces areless emotional and do not
have to deal with what is already exists in place.
[5] The language of the memory of shapes at the
concentration camp
sites has both a presence and an impact on memorial
museums in various countries.A dramatic example
is the memorial site in Oklahoma City,wherein April
1995 an individual protester blew up a federal
building, killing 168 people. An international contest
was held to design the location as a memorial site.
The results speak in a language taken directly from
the camps in the country of origin of the architects
who won the contest.
[6] A (very personal) comment: it is very foolish
preventing the widest possible use of these
photographs.Free of charge The desire for financial
gain is clearly much greater here than concern
about the dangers of misuse of the photographs'
OFFICIAL COMMEMORATION
IN PUBLIC SPACES SIONA SHIMSHI
France is a country with a rich tradition of official
commemoration in public spaces, with the
government adapting its actions to each hero,
general and era. After World War I, when the pain
of loss of 1.4 million men was felt throughout all
strata of society, every village and every square
soon had monuments to the fallen. This was also
a time when the arts and artists flourished.
Four years of occupation during World War II, ended
the symmetry, and France was forced to cope with
unfamiliar, new situations. Many of the fallen were
executed by their own countrymen, and many
others felt that it was the right thing to do.
The Vichy regime succeeded in concealing the
extent of the shame of surrender from the people
in terms of how many lives it cost to follow the
lines set down by the Nazis. The fact that victims
belonged to clearly-defined groups –Jews, Sinti
and Roma (“gypsies”), extremist political activists –
prevented overall national mourning that would
encourage commemoration. Each group took
refuge in mourning its own, with the Communists
at the forefront of commemorative activities,
perhaps in retaliation for continued discrimination
and ostracism. In the short postwar heyday of the
Communist Party, with activists filling key
positions, they devoted great energy to collective
memory activities and commemorated anyone
and everyone who had ever believed in them .
Public commemoration is conditional on political
moves. The people follow the leaders who decide
on the parameters.
De Gaulle was 'nominated' as the 'first and
foremost freedom fighter' Catholics, who
comprise 80% of the population of France,
waited to see what the Church would tell them
to do, and when no directions were handed down,
they handed themselves over to de Gaulle’s
policies. His politics were convenient for the
masses and focused on encouraging the people,
on “binding up the rifts” with medals,
awards for valor to various groups, erasing
the crimes of other groups, and ignoring groups
that were inconvenient to rule, without considering
the long-term effects of his actions. In those
days, this was not considered re-writing
history It took about a decade to realize what
had been done Scholars of the period identify
sub-periods of time. Similarly to how wartime can
be a catharsis which brings a nation together into
a cohesive whole, the postwar period of analyzing
what has happened is a time of crisis in which a
nation’s behavior depends on its leaders, with
differences between winners and losers
becoming blurred.
In 1944, de Gaulle decided to commemorate the
ruins of the village of Oradour- sur- Glane as
testimony of the horrors of the Nazi occupier,
but ignored the part that French soldiers played
in those horrors. De Gaulle gave the order to
demolish the Vel d’hiver (the Winter Stadium),
which was the most concrete testimony of how
France treated its Jews. The first decade after
WWII was a very poor time for collective memory
in Paris.In contrast to monuments which require
proper surroundings, (in fact, many monuments
were erected in Père Lachaise cemetery for Jewish
victims of the Holocaust), the return to life
necessitated erasing the hell of the past and
regain trust in human beings. In the 1950s the
French were not interested in (or perhaps did not
believe?) official commemoration, and felt that
affixing individual memorial plaques to buildings
where their murdered relatives lived would be
more of a protest than a commemoration.
(At present they are the only authentic
commemoration of the Holocaust in Paris).
The Sinti and the Roma– the “gypsies”–
without home base or houses, did not even
receive this small consolation. Public space is
a seismograph, responsive to every current
issue. One of the great traits of Paris is that
in addition to her monuments, built over so
many years, and so larger than life,
Paris has local city halls in its 20 arrondissements
standing in the face of current events and current
heroes: the “hostages in Iraq” look out from
printed posters of faces enlarged many times,
vibrating off the walls of municipality building
facades. Events follow closely upon the heels
of events “AS THE PEOPLE WITNESSING
THE SOUNDS"