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maydaymayday - have clowns will travel

clown x | 26.04.2007 13:26 | Climate Chaos | Palestine | Sheffield

we now have only 11 days to go until the first show of a tour that will take us from nottingham to nablus, G8 to gaza and maybe back again?

what follows is the hot off the press latest news on who 'we' is, what we've been doing / plan to do and WHY WE REALLY NEED YOUR SUPPORT TO MAKE THIS WHOLE THANG HAPPEN!!

THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE WHO ARE FOR PEACE AND THIS PROJECT IS ABOUT ACTIVELY TRYING TO MAKE PEACE SO PLEASE SUPPORT IT IN EVERY WAY YOU CAN AND PASS ON TO ALL NETWORKS

ta very much

so

there are 4 of us who are in for the whole tour until the end of november - hurray!

Trash Panache, Lady Longstroemp, clown X and subkamaleon

we are currently training, rehearsing, organising and panicking together in asbo land, nottingham

also with us and coming for 1 - 3 months of the tour are general fluffiness, and anonymous - definitely

and between 3 and 20 other clowns for various lengths of time between may and november.

so at least some clarity about personnel

next logistix - how are we going to travel? inside palestine its relatively easy - we're cycling everywhere, with trailers and vehicle support -

on the way its not so easy.

We refuse too fly, so we have to go overland. We are already giving 7 months to this project and cycling all the way to palestine as well is another project in itself and would scramble what we've organised for this summer in the westbank.

also although we are minimising what we need to take and trying to take skills, experience and tools and use waste, we still have quite a lot of stuff and we also have have donations of equipment that isn't available in palestine to take with us.

so our clown logik says we need a vehicle. we have been 'given' several in the last 3 months and all have presented more problems than solutions Cry

we have people willing to drive for us from the G8 to palestine (because as you know clowns cant drive), but we still need drivers from nottingham to the g8, and it would be good if they were also amazing mechanics.

the vehicle needs to be able to carry a minimum of 7 or 8 people, pull a very heavy trailer and balance a very full roofrack on its head.

it should be an oldish diesel van so we can run it on biofuel, (which being clowns we know how to 'make' )



we have already spent money on a solar panel, bike trailers, organising and lots of bits and we have about £1000 towards a vehicle.

we have 5 big events coming up in derby nottingham and london, which will raise more and we will be generating money en route.

SO IN A NUTSHELL RIGHT NOW WE NEED YOUR TIME AND SUPPORT TO OBTAIN, RUN AND MAINTAIN A VEHICLE RELIABLE ENOUGH TO GET US TO PALESTINE. AND WE NEED BOTH IN THE NEXT 10 DAYS !!!!!

or

Plans B - Z involve getting as far as the g8 by cycle, ferry and train and meeting up with a vehicle there, cycling all the way and changing the project, making a documentary about how we are getting there............

we've tried to run this whole project as sustainably as possible, suported from the grass roots, skill sharing and reducing + reusing wherever possible. now we are dowen to our last 2 weeks and we need to focus on putting our show on the road - yor support can make loads of difference

the more support we receive from our networks and communities, (thats you Wink that is)

the more we will be able to achieve or at least attempt, more, of the ambitions of the pedalpoweredclowns project.

please visit our wishlist + donate online pages on t'website

please come to one of the events we are involved with (see calendar on website)

email or call if you want to discuss further what we are up to 07849 208143  info@pedalpoweredclowns.org

and please talk to your friends and other people about this project. the connections are there we just need to make them.



THERE ARE MANY PEOPLE WHO ARE FOR PEACE AND THIS PROJECT IS ABOUT ACTIVELY TRYING TO MAKE PEACE SO PLEASE SUPPORT IT IN EVERY WAY YOU CAN



ta very much for your time and support

clown x
- e-mail: info@pedalpoweredclowns.org
- Homepage: http://www.pedalpoweredclowns.org

Comments

Hide the following 10 comments

Join the other Bike Caravan!

27.04.2007 06:37

You wrote: 'we still need drivers from nottingham to the g8'

After some searching I've found out about a bike caravan that goes from Gent (Belgium) which will travel through the Netherlands and Northern Germany to meet up with another bike group on its way to the G8. You could cycle to the ferry, get on and meet up with them. That seems the easiest solution anyway. Here are some of the links:

 http://dissentnetzwerk.org/wiki/Bicycle-Caravan_%22West%22
 http://indymedia.nl/nl/2007/04/43938.shtml (promotional video)
 http://dissentnetzwerk.org/wiki/Fahrradkarawanen_/_bicycle_caravans

Good luck!

one of notts imc


donation

27.04.2007 12:50

Can people donate money so you stay in Palestine and don't come back

nti - Clown

2replies

29.04.2007 11:22

ta for your efforts but if youd read the (admittedly long and rambling post) you would know we have to get a van full of stuff to palestine via the g8. we can already get ourselves to the g8 - and in fact have a tour (and therefore route) booked - which isnt the same as the bike caravan
cheers
anyway

as for you, you twit
we will quite happily stay in palestine once we're there

with the added bonus that we wont come into contact with people like you -

if you cant be positive and still want to make a donation
why dont you donate the rest of your supply of oxygen

and do us all a favour and take some pressure of the population crisis

every little helps

X

clown x


a few helpful pointers

29.04.2007 14:36

"ta for your efforts but if youd read the you would know we have to get a van full of stuff to palestine via the g8."

Germany is not on the way to palestine.


"we will quite happily stay in palestine once we're there"
Great news.

"with the added bonus that we wont come into contact with people like you -"
...and they added bonus you'll come into contact with live fire.

"if you cant be positive and still want to make a donation
why dont you donate the rest of your supply of oxygen

and do us all a favour and take some pressure of the population crisis"

And now your on about a 'population crisis'! Great. A clown, a hippy, a liberal, and now a bit of fascist too.

You really are a piece of work.

I take it you've organised your stay in palestine independently as none of the orgs out there would tolerate muppets like you.

Major Mistake


Really sorry

29.04.2007 15:00

I'd just like to apologise to the world for creating the clowns, it was the biggest political and personal mistake i have ever made.

What ungodly beast have i unleashed unto the world. I shall spend the rest of my days as a recluse nurtering the deserved feelings of regret and dismay.

May god have mercy upon me.

John Jordan
mail e-mail: info@weareeverywhere.org
- Homepage: http://www.weareeverywhere.org/


A FAKE poster

01.05.2007 19:12

This is just to say that i did not post the last comment - someone else posted it who is either a cop and wants to cause frictions within movements or has an identity crisis or is just so busy working on the much needed global rebellion that they spend their life online pretending to be other people ....

dear poster - get a life, stand away from your computer screen, make some friends and stop the lies, you really will feel much more happy as a result

yours
the real john jordan

The real JOHN JORDAN
- Homepage: http://www.labofii.net


Dear Pedal Powered Clowns

02.05.2007 11:35

Let me first of all say that I think it is good that you initiated this project. It is good to see that young people get involved with issues surounding them, as well as with issues further away. Through this website and on your own website I have been following your project for some time now, and I have considered supporting you. I do feel however there are some concerns. Please allow me to voice these, in the hope you'll take these on board and maybe give them some thought.

In relation to this article, the first thing that I noticed was the fact that about 10 days before you leave you're still looking for a driver. This seems unfortunate and also a little last-minute and indicates something about the level of organisation. It seems odd to me as well that you would need a van to drive you to the G8 when, as the previous comment pointed out, there are bike caravans going there. If I were to support 'pedal powered clowns' to go to Palestine, then I'd like to see you get there 'pedal-powered'. Especially even more so now with climate change getting worse. Consider it. Are you training? I was thinking that as you were cycling to Palestine, you would be doing a lot of training and us (the potential supporters you're appealing to) would be kept informed of the progress of that. There is no mention of it on the website. It seems the cycling aspect of it is moved to the background, which I find a real shame.

The next thing I noticed is that in the beginning the idea of the project was to work in Palestine. I guess the aim was (and still is) to raise awareness of the situation in Palestine and rally support along the way. Now the idea suddenly is to go to the G8 and I read maybe to Denmark. That doesn't seem to make sense as Palestine is located South-East, not North. Anyhow, it's good you want to go to the G8, but it's not what the project was initially about. As someone considering supporting you, I'd like to know what I'm giving my money to and if the plans keeps changing I'm less confident about the fact that my money will actually be used to support your work with children in Palestine. Have the pedal-powered clowns have got too many issues on their agenda?

Another point I feel very strongly about is the way this and other articles have been written. A lot of the text is in CAPITALS, a lot of it is rambly, no correct spelling etc. In Britain about 5% of the population (thats around 3 million people) have some form of a reading disablity, such as dyslexia, print reading disability or other sight problem. The way you've written the articles and the layout of your website are very inaccessible. Even for me it is hard to read. Also the information isn't categorized very well so its difficult to find what you're looking for efficiently. More information about these issues can be found on the website of the Royal National Institute of the Blind:  http://www.rnib.org.uk

I would have liked to read a lot more about Palestine, the villages you're going to work in, the people you'll be working with, more about the kind of work you're thinking of doing and how you feel it will affect peoples lives there. More background, more analysis, more photos of previous work and more of why you think it will make a difference for you to go there dressed as 'clowns'. Are you interested in different ways of working? Is there any contact with existing groups supporting Palestine in Nottingham and if so, will they be at your event on 7th May? Why does your website state 'we have a lot of people wanting to come for just 1 or 2 months of the project so now we are only interested in people wanting to commit to the whole thing'? Are you not interested to work with people if they can't commit to doing the whole project? What is that about? Another thing you write on your website is: 'the closer we get to our leaving date the more necessary the short cut solutions of money will be to the projects realisation'. It reads like you are very unrealistic about the amount of money this tour will cost and haven't been as on the case as you should have been about fundraising. You go on about being 'DIY' but seem to mostly ask others for all the things that are needed. 'We'll blag it all along the way' is the ethos I get from reading your website. On the whole the project seems very badly put together. No transparency of where money is coming from and how it's exactly spent, no open structure for people to support you, no clear understanding of what it is that you are ACTUALLY doing. Maybe you ARE organised enough to do this project, it's just that whats been published on the internet isn't reflecting it. And for me and many others, this is the only thing to go by. It's all a bit vague and although this project project has the potential of being really good, consider what it is you actually want people to support you for.

Let me finish off by wishing you all the best on your travels and hope that in future you will be able to communicate with and learn from people who have done these types of tours before, to avoid making the same kind of mistakes.

All the best,

Simon Cowley


to Simon Cowley

02.05.2007 14:49

Simon, if that wasn't just a nice way of demonstrating what ab unch of dodgy chancers this lot are, then i can hopefully point you in the direction of some genuinely useful solidarity groups.

The most high - profile campaign for internationals is the International Solidarity Movement. Without the ISM, half the international groups now in the occupied territories probably wouldn't be there.

ISM is a horizonatally organised, consensus based and Palestinian lead movement. It works in direct solidarity with palestinians every day of the year, with some annual campaigns which they push for volunteers to try and make such as the olive harvest (harassed by soldiers and settlers), Freedom Summer, and obstructing the construction of the apartheid wall.

I recommend supporting palestinian aid organisations and solidarity groups which are ALREADY IN PALESTINE, as security in and out of israel which controls palestine's borders is very tight and even the best cover story for a peace activist can fall through. They don't have to let people in. They will deport anyone they think has come to protest the occupation.

as you point out about the clowns:
"'We'll blag it all along the way' is the ethos I get from reading your website. On the whole the project seems very badly put together."

- this is utterly intolerable in palestine. Activists need to be well organised with a clear plan and a good link to palestians, such as a fluency in arabic.

look at www.palsolidarity.org, google 'women in black', 'checkpoint watch' and 'anarchists against the wall'. I really don't mind which group you choose to support, as long as you don't sponsor somehting which actually damage the good relations and groundwork intenationals have built up in palestine so far.

Thanks for your response,
Al McShoof

Al McShoof


Palestine

02.05.2007 16:18

As a quick comment, I'm currently in Palestine and I've talked to a good few people who are really excited about the clowns coming out. Believe me, I find clowns intensely irritating at protests in Britain, but if people in Palestine (both internationals and Palestinians) are looking forward to them arriving and think its a positive project, you can't really argue with that. Also they do say that their van is biofuel powered in their post.

Street Medic


to Street Medic

03.05.2007 12:43

Hi SM,

nice one for going out to the OPT, massive respect due there.
Can i just ask a few things then - and i'm well aware you can't be too specific about your identity due to getting back into israel at a later date.

Where are you stationed?

Which group are you working with/what are your activities mainly?

What exactly are you expecting from the clowns and what have palestininians said about them?

Take care and good luck,

Al McShoof

Al MacShoof


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