Daniel Marks, Great Britain

For Anatol

Who's the biggest gang on the block? Did you pay protection?
Animal noises are approaching, the farm creatures assemble,
and seeking swill and oats, they come squealing,
million hordes of pigs, sheep, rats and donkeys,
who force you into the milking shed, tie you down with twisted straw
and hoof you in the stomach, how do you like that?
That's a tidbit for them to nibble on, at least...
when you get your breath and come around,
you can see the cows have modified the milking machine.
Now it scans for signs of rural aggravation,
where is creamy and where is curdled, who has chewed the cud, and for how long.

Perhaps soon the cud will chew us, the food chain seems topsy-turvy,
beasts of the field making meals of men, worms making meals of everything.
Meat-eating, war-making, man will put these follies away in time,
but if livestock then take up arms, what is to be done?
Let there be a general amnesty: we will forgive you your dumbness
if you forgive us our tendency for freedom... and vice-versa.


(o traducere aproximativă în limba română)
Pentru Anatol

Care-i cea mai tare bandă din bloc? Ţi-ai plătit protecţia?
Se aude apropiindu-se un grohăit, creaturile fermei se adună
şi caută lături şi ovăz, ei vin guiţind,
milioane de hoarde de porci, oi, guzgani şi măgari,
te îmbrâncesc în şopronul de muls, te leagă cu paie îndoite
şi-ţi dau cu copita-n stomac, îţi place?
Asta-i o bucăţică din care să poată muşca, cel puţin...
Când îţi recapeţi respiraţia şi te apropii,
poţi vedea că vacile au modificat aparatul de muls.
Acum aparatul scanează căutând semne de agravare rurală,
pe unde-i cremos, pe unde-i brânzit, cine a mestecat rumegatul şi pentru cât timp.

Poate, în curând rumegatul ne va mesteca pe noi,
lanţul alimentar pare cu fundu-n sus,
dobitoacele câmpurilor prepară mâncăruri din oameni,
viermii prepară bucate din orice.
Oamenii, mâncătorii de carne, făcători de război,
vor da la o parte nebuniile astea cu timpul,
dar dacă şeptelul se înarmează, ce-i de făcut?
Să fie amnistiere generală: noi vă iertăm muţenia
dacă voi ne iertaţi dorinţa noastră de libertate... şi viceversa.

from SINII

Muleitioners send to Mayu(Japan), Yumi Yoshida (Japan), and Lissette Candela (France)

R.F. Côté, Canada, 2nd contribution

Lissette Candela, France

A letter of solidarity!
12 Rue Basse de st. Eloi,
17000 La Rochelle

We dance as they play, Paul Nistor, Moldova

It is the celebration of the city of Chişinău (october, 14, 2008). The Moldovan police' orchestra is playing a folk song - very nicely indeed. An old man (81) enjoys it so much, that he starts dancing - as amazingly as only an 81 years old can. People love his dance. However, after the orchestra finishes playing the piece, the orchestra conductor tells the old man to dance somewhere else. The orchestra plays a march, the old man dances again, this time farther away from the orchestra. This movie was filmed with a cellphone camera.

Angela Behrendt, Germany

Anatol Mătăsaru and his piglet facing a whole brigade (German style).

R.F. CÔTÉ, Canada

Kiki Desvaux, France

The street is for everybody - for the whole world!

The second arrest of Mătăsaru. Photos by Oleg Brega

A. Mătăsaru, on February, 3rd, 2009 by Oleg Brega

A short explanation of these photos:
On the 3rd of February,
a group of people from various NGOs peacefully protested in front of the Prosecutors office in Chişinau (the capital of Moldova) in Mătăsaru's support and against the abuse of police. At some point a group of unidentified men wearing masks attacked the protesters heating them and spraying them with tear-gas.
The protesters tried to defend themselves (among them A. Mătăsaru wearing a pig costume). The police did not intervene, even though these people were protesting in the very front of the prosecutors office and the people were shouting "POLICE! HELP!" The protesters believe, as paradoxically as it might seem, that the attackers were commissioned to do their dirty thing by somebody from the country's law-enforcement agency. Currently, some of the attackers are arrested.
The cameramen present on the spot recorded the event:
http://www.jurnaltv.md/?article=1361

A portrait of Anatol Mătăsaru

This is my first contribution to this project. A portrait I did after a picture of A. Mătăsaru published in a Moldovan magazine. I thought it will be nice to start with the face. Feel free to download this picture and use it in yr collages, drawings, etc.
This is not just a visual project. Any art form is trully appreciated! please contribute with texts, poems, anything...
Sincerely, Teo Ajder