Your story made full sense to me as in France, certain cities, sometimes without the help of the governement, worked together to make museums of their industrial past. Such as in Montceau-les-Mines, a small industrial twon created at the end of the 18th century, where former miners created a museum in a closed pit.
In the northern part of France, regional governement realised that they could use their industrial past for tourism. The landscape has been completely disfigured by the abandoned pits but something nice is growing from it. Of course, the ground is polluted with toxic waste for centuries, but theyr grow grass and made new landscapes of what has been destroyed.
But other regions are less creative. Montbard was for centuries, as Resita, an industrial town linked to iron. Buffon (the famous naturalist and 18th century scientist) had his "forge" (a most wonderful place to visit, as a private family carefully restored all the original buildings and home of Buffon. It took 50 years to do it). Just as Celts and Benedictine monks who found the ore and cut the trees from the thick forests all around to have the fuel to forge iron. Then it was coal.
When you arrive at Monbard, there is still a huge modern artefact on the center of a roundabout with the slogan "Metal valley" sculpted on it. But the plants have all closed. And all the industries connected to this field closed around the 60.s, the 70.s and the 80.s. I believe there is still a little unit of Arcelor Mittal, the last remnant of a once glorious industrial past.
As you say they are many wounded people who felt abandoned and lost in the middle of this industrial evolution and failure.
So the story of Resita is really beautiful.
What you say about Michael Jackson made me think of the writings of a french sociologist who works specifically on the same subject. I am currently reading one of his book about the importance of storytelling for healing "Dénouer les noeuds sociopsychiques - Quand le passé agit en nous" by Vincent de Gaulejac. He is still alive and you can find some of his talks on YouTube.
In this book he explains how it is important for individuals to tell their story in order to heal. He has been doing workshops in Argentina and Uruguay, two countries who after dictatures decided to pardon everybody in order to reconstruct. But you can't heal if your story hasn't been heard and this must be done collectively, Vincent de Gaulejac explains.
Indeed Romania, and many other countries (France, Italy, Germany), have plenty of wounds to heal. It may be the soil or the souls, but we have tools to do this healing, the problem is getting the right persons and the political will to use these tools.
I hope you'll take some holidays during this summer !
Dear Cristian,
Your story made full sense to me as in France, certain cities, sometimes without the help of the governement, worked together to make museums of their industrial past. Such as in Montceau-les-Mines, a small industrial twon created at the end of the 18th century, where former miners created a museum in a closed pit.
In the northern part of France, regional governement realised that they could use their industrial past for tourism. The landscape has been completely disfigured by the abandoned pits but something nice is growing from it. Of course, the ground is polluted with toxic waste for centuries, but theyr grow grass and made new landscapes of what has been destroyed.
But other regions are less creative. Montbard was for centuries, as Resita, an industrial town linked to iron. Buffon (the famous naturalist and 18th century scientist) had his "forge" (a most wonderful place to visit, as a private family carefully restored all the original buildings and home of Buffon. It took 50 years to do it). Just as Celts and Benedictine monks who found the ore and cut the trees from the thick forests all around to have the fuel to forge iron. Then it was coal.
When you arrive at Monbard, there is still a huge modern artefact on the center of a roundabout with the slogan "Metal valley" sculpted on it. But the plants have all closed. And all the industries connected to this field closed around the 60.s, the 70.s and the 80.s. I believe there is still a little unit of Arcelor Mittal, the last remnant of a once glorious industrial past.
As you say they are many wounded people who felt abandoned and lost in the middle of this industrial evolution and failure.
So the story of Resita is really beautiful.
What you say about Michael Jackson made me think of the writings of a french sociologist who works specifically on the same subject. I am currently reading one of his book about the importance of storytelling for healing "Dénouer les noeuds sociopsychiques - Quand le passé agit en nous" by Vincent de Gaulejac. He is still alive and you can find some of his talks on YouTube.
In this book he explains how it is important for individuals to tell their story in order to heal. He has been doing workshops in Argentina and Uruguay, two countries who after dictatures decided to pardon everybody in order to reconstruct. But you can't heal if your story hasn't been heard and this must be done collectively, Vincent de Gaulejac explains.
Indeed Romania, and many other countries (France, Italy, Germany), have plenty of wounds to heal. It may be the soil or the souls, but we have tools to do this healing, the problem is getting the right persons and the political will to use these tools.
I hope you'll take some holidays during this summer !
All the best,
Elena
Thank you so much for your thoughtful comments and recommendations, Elena!