For the love of all things vintage, clever, designed, and/or delicious, we celebrate objects and rituals in all their glory!

8.13.2009

Who do they think they are? Bunch of Socialists?

Found out about this design group awhile back via Core77 called Platform 21.
And guess what? They're Dutch...go figures.
Actually, they're more like a design platform. They're stationed in a crazy Space Odyssey-style chapel in Amsterdam and use the space as their public laboratory where they have design "repair" stations and workshops of all sort, and most importantly, its where people exchange creative knowledge and ideas.
I don't know about you...but they sound like a bunch of Socialists to me! Don't they know that government sponsored design groups, universal health care, and public universities don't work? The whole system is gonna fail and we're gonna be laughing at them from the U.S.of A when that happens......any day now....I can feel it!

Anyways, Platform 21 developed this concept called Repair Manifesto. Their moto "Stop recycling. Start reparing." It's all about repairing what you have....using your creativity.
Sounds a little fishy...I think this is a governement conspiracy to brainwash the people to make them think they're doing something good when in fact they're just trying to use the people for free labor.
Here are the 11 things on the Repair Manifesto: Read it (click photo) and you be the judge. I can't say that I'm totally convinced about this whole repair "manifesto" propaganda.
These chairs have been repaired with duct tape.....clever.....but have they been fully tested? are the child safe? pet safe? dishwasher safe? did they test it by locking bunch of cats in a room with those chairs and see how it holds up after a bunch of cats scratching on it? They failed to address any of that!And here we have cracked walls repaired with Lego blocks (concept by Jan Vormann, I wrote about him last December) You know what this means? This means that they're robbing every child in the Netherlands of their Legos in order do construction repairs for the city!! And look at the poor Asian lady slaving away....she was probably just a tourist that ended up getting forced to work for them! Unbelievable!
This one is just ridiculous....web repair advertisement using yarn on actual spider webs!! I almost died when I saw this. The concept and the story is just way too hilarious. I can just see the spiders getting pissed off waking up with a bunch of words on its web....Ahem, I mean this is serious. The Dutch are so poor that they have to infringe on the resources of a spider for advertisement!Now that you have a clear idea of what life is like in the Netherlands and how grim it is, doesn't it make you appreciate the life you have as an American? They're in such bad shape that they actually have to start using broken objects and repair them! Its just unthinkable!
As Americans we should REALLY be grateful of how privileged we are and how we can afford to buy new things and dispose of them even if they're not broken. The idea that someone has to use their tools, hands, and creativity to fix something is simply unrealistic!
I don't know about you but I got better things to do than fixing something with duct tape and hot glue.
I contribute to the world by educating my readers through my blog about important current issues like this (and few other issues like what awesome thing I got and want)

Sigh...It's only seeing how other parts of the world are suffering is when we realize how lucky we truly are as Americans to be living in the land of Freedom.....oh, and also Bald Eagles, too. They go hand in hand of course.


To the Dutch (if you're American born citizen, DO NOT read this!):
Ahem...Everything I said above about the Dutch and your country was all just an act for my American readers. It's okay, they don't know that both Dylan and I have been to Amsterdam and think it's the BEST place ever! I have to be extra harsh on you guys so we don't seem suspicious and "unpatriotic"...whatever that means.
So we're cool, right? I can go live in your country and hang out with your awesome people anytime, right?
What? No?! WHY NOT?!
GOD!! I'll do anything....I'll repair ANYTHING and EVERYTHING you want me to!!! I just wanna live in Amsterdam!!!! Please just let me live there!!! PLEEEEZE?!!!

2 comments:

Noal said...

omg, Charlotte! Eat your heart out!

lucitebox said...

Ha-ha! That was awesome. Thanks for the delicious sarcasm. LOVE IT!

You won't believe this but it's true. My log-in word for this comment is "commie." Did you influence that?