After I spoke with a Ukrainian woman here in Amsterdam I worry about the psychological damage for those left behind. She said:
Life here is heaven. We’re so grateful now to the ordinary things that usually seem to be basic: no bombing, no sirens, light, water, heating, we as a family together.
So eventually there will probably be a difference between those who didn’t endure it and those who did. It must be healthy for those in Ukraine to release their anger and frustration against Putin.
Wikipedia explains what an effigy is:
An effigy is a sculptural representation, often life-size, of a specific person or a prototypical figure. The term is mostly used for the makeshift dummies used for symbolic punishment in political protests
Let every community set up an effigy of Putin in the central square which every local can release his anger on. I propose the following rules:
- only use garbage, second hand material, with no or little value, to make one
- no weapons or tools, only use bare hands and words for your release
- make only one per community, not many
Make a Putin effigy poppet
Take a black or dark blue suit, shirt and tie. Dress it on a piece of wood. The clothes are wrapped around it and you fill it with hay or pillows. Two pieces of wood go through the legs of the pants, attach those to the other piece of wood in the crotch. Fill it up with hay and pillows. On top you attach a ball and pull a white plastic bag over it with a charicature of Putin’s face drawn on it.
You might want to attach shoes for those who want to start their therapeutic session with stamping his feet.
Attach the poppet firmly to a strong pole in the center of a central open space.
No weapons
Because it needs to be physical for you, to release tensions through your body, you should not bring tools, weapons or fire to destroy the poppet. Perhaps on special occasions you can set one on fire.
And let others have a go at Putin too. After all, it is a community thing, it will unite people with their cropped up frustrations. It might need to be stitched back together every night because it probably has to endure a lot.
Only one
Why only one per town? Because it will bring people together. While you are standing in line or just being a spectator you can hear what others are shouting at the Putin poppet, you can see you are not alone, that the community comes together. To fight Putin as a group is also visually strong because some might want to spread imagery of it through the internet to inspire others and perhaps even reach Russians, bypassing censorship.