Non aux BASM

On Saturday I went to Bastille to see the Pyramide de Chaussures, an annual demonstration, held all over France, against the use of land mines throughout the world. By adding a pair of shoes to the pile, you signify your solidarity with victims, and your support for the fight against a type of weapon that's frequently responsible for the murder and gross mutilation of innocent people.

As depressing as the situation is, it was a beautiful day and there was music and face painting, so the place took on a kind of carnival-type atmosphere.



People had the opportunity to try out life in a wheelchair, including a demonstration area where you could see what it's like to navigate tight doorways and corners, and up and down ramps, and even sports, like fencing from a wheelchair.



There was a brief demonstration of the process of clearing fields contaminated with land mines, which showed how painstaking and onerous the process is. The area is divided into strips about one meter across, which are inspected in small increments, first visually and then with a fine metal wand to make sure there are no trigger lines across the path. The inspector runs a metal detector over the ground, and upon finding something, he pushes on the ground gently with the wand to find any hard objects, which he uncovers manually by sweeping away the dirt. If the metal object is a mine, he marks it with an orange cone and comes back to wire it up for detonation at the end of the day.



In the case of cluster bomblets, like those which are currently estimated to number over a million in southern Lebanon, the inspector might use a pulley system to lower them out of tree branches from a safe distance, then mark the location and come back to wire it for detonation at the end of the day.




At the end of that Saturday, in each of 39 cities in France sponsoring Pyramides des Chaussures, all of the shoes were donated to the local charity organizations for distribution to the needy.
Here, you can find more information and sign a petition for a ban on land mines. And here you can find out about Handicap International's work with the disabled.