Graffiti and Missing Markers

[Emily Scott]

It has been a constant source of disappointment that so many people feel the need to "tag" along the Camino. Is their self involvement that strong and/or their ignorance of the affect of their actions on others that strong? Julius'16, for example, should be found and brought back to scrub his name off of the hundreds of monuments he has disfigured. If some one feels compelled to leave their moment of existence, paint it on a rock...If someone feels compelled to steal a kilometer marker or Camino market, steal a photo on your camera when no one is looking. The Spanish people and friends of the Camino have tried hard to be kind to Pelegrinos...why does one person feel compelled to act in just the opposite way? It is sad and unnecessary AND very UN-Camino like...

 

[Smallest_Sparrow]

coming soon to my t-shirt shop (attached i hope)

 

[SYates]

Now imagine you and Julius 16 are doing, independently, the same camino and you are wearing your t-shirt and he sees you wearing it BC SY

 

[MCFearnley]

Oooh that Julius! He needs a good hiding. Other pilgrims I came across commented on his tags also. None of them positive. At one point before entering Melide I saw three youths marking up a distance marker, but what can I say? Most likely they would either not understand or not give a hoot.

It was a real bummer not to be able to photograph say the 50km or the 25km markers as there was no way to know which one it was for lack of plaques. The 100km marker was so defaced that I did not bother with a photo.

I wish more people would subscribe to the "Take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints" philosophy.

 

[Smallest_Sparrow]

Now imagine you and Julius 16 are doing, independently, the same camino and you are wearing your t-shirt and he sees you wearing it BC SY

I'd like to think that I'd offer him my shirt

 

[Smallest_Sparrow]

Oooh that Julius! He needs a good hiding. Other pilgrims I came across commented on his tags also. None of them positive. At one point before entering Melide I saw three youths marking up a distance marker, but what can I say? Most likely they would either not understand or not give a hoot.

It was a real bummer not to be able to photograph say the 50km or the 25km markers as there was no way to know which one it was for lack of plaques. The 100km marker was so defaced that I did not bother with a photo.

I wish more people would subscribe to the "Take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints" philosophy.

no, wait, i'd sell him a shirt....and open a stand next to his graffitti for all those passing by...off to buy a silk screen.

and MCFearnley it sound like you at safely arrived in SdC. congratulations. I hope the little pilgrims with you enjoyed the trip

 

[SYates]

I'd like to think that I'd offer him my shirt

no, wait, i'd sell him a shirt....and open a stand next to his graffitti for all those passing by...off to buy a silk screen. ...

Thankfully I have learned, the hard way, to keep drinks and laptops separated ;-)
BC SY

 

[MCFearnley]

I got to Santiago yesterday along with my perigrino and perigrina mascots. They featured in photos along the way.

It was a wonderful experience.

 

[Dennis D]

I always thought that the Pilgrim Passport was proof enough that "you were there."

The disrespect shown to this beautiful country by defacing and damaging the markers doesn't seem to change. Now it appears that the new markers look as bad as the older ones that were replaced and this happened in less than one year!

Never the less it won't stop me from returning again next year.

Buen Camino

 

[Mike Trebert]

My 7-year-old granddaughter recently apologised to me for being a "bad girl" for a few seconds on a stressful afternoon. I said "Holly, you're never a bad girl. You did a bad thing, that doesn't make you a bad girl". She's stroppy and I adore her.

These incomplete people who deface the markers. Forgive them. The markers are surrounded by endless indescribable beauty but some of us become distracted victims of this angry, troubled, basically fearful behaviour.

If you see it happening, say something. Ask Julius or his clone why he does it. Be clear. Wait. Leave him to answer. Move on. OR, act. Suggestion: Collect a few bucks, buy and install a tiny video camera at a single strategic location, pointed at a newly-installed (or cleaned/repaired) pristine marker. Wait a day or so down the road for the culprit (you know where he's going!), fine him - or make him go back and clean up his mischief. Move the camera every time someone is nabbed. There should probably be a sign somewhere warning that the markers are being watched and that people have been arrested and fined for defacing markers. The police would have to be involved. Local government might have to enact a new bylaw. I pledge 20 Euros. If you think that this idea is abhorrent, then suggest some other practical solution.

My Camino is to see and to try to understand, to walk in beauty and to not be brought down by people who try to make me a casualty of their fractious self-loathing.

Buen Camino, - Mike

 

[Sub]

My 7-year-old granddaughter recently apologised to me for being a "bad girl" for a few seconds on a stressful afternoon. I said "Holly, you're never a bad girl. You did a bad thing, that doesn't make you a bad girl". She's stroppy and I adore her.

These incomplete people who deface the markers. Forgive them. The markers are surrounded by endless indescribable beauty but some of us become distracted victims of this angry, troubled, basically fearful behaviour.

If you see it happening, say something. Ask Julius or his clone why he does it. Be clear. Wait. Leave him to answer. Move on. OR, act. Suggestion: Collect a few bucks, buy and install a tiny video camera at a single strategic location, pointed at a newly-installed (or cleaned/repaired) pristine marker. Wait a day or so down the road for the culprit (you know where he's going!), fine him - or make him go back and clean up his mischief. Move the camera every time someone is nabbed. There should probably be a sign somewhere warning that the markers are being watched and that people have been arrested and fined for defacing markers. The police would have to be involved. Local government might have to enact a new bylaw. I pledge 20 Euros. If you think that this idea is abhorrent, then suggest some other practical solution.

My Camino is to see and to try to understand, to walk in beauty and to not be brought down by people who try to make me a casualty of their fractious self-loathing.

Buen Camino, - Mike

It has been a constant source of disappointment that so many people feel the need to "tag" along the Camino. Is their self involvement that strong and/or their ignorance of the affect of their actions on others that strong? Julius'16, for example, should be found and brought back to scrub his name off of the hundreds of monuments he has disfigured. If some one feels compelled to leave their moment of existence, paint it on a rock...If someone feels compelled to steal a kilometer marker or Camino market, steal a photo on your camera when no one is looking. The Spanish people and friends of the Camino have tried hard to be kind to Pelegrinos...why does one person feel compelled to act in just the opposite way? It is sad and unnecessary AND very UN-Camino like...

I too have experienced the egotistical markings of Julius along the Camino Frances. When I extended my walk to Finisterre I thought well at least I won't be troubled by Julius's graffiti any more and yet there he was again even defacing the backs of traffic signs . Truly sad that someone feels the need to abuse a public trust.

Come on Julius! Wake up. This is not cool.

 

[Smallest_Sparrow]

Because of the many recent posts I've been reading about the psychology of why people write graffiti...it is sad how messed up their minds are, and how stunted their impulse control...but i still wish someone would help teach them how to be a worthwhile part of society via many long hours erasing their worthless work from other peoples property. 500 hours of scrubbing would be a good place to start.

 

[Bradypus]

I arrived in Santiago this morning having walked from St Jean. Many people complain about the amount of toilet paper which lines the route. Disgusting and unnecessary. I agree. But there is at least the partial justification that it stems from an urgent and basic human need. I have found the graffiti, the vandalism, and the littering of the route with personal memorabilia far more revolting and objectionable than the toilet paper and excrement. In all my walking I have tried to follow the idea of "leave no trace". Do the perpetrators really believe that the rest of us are somehow blessed by reading their names, spotting their scrawled cartoons, or deciphering their "inspirational" messages on every available flat surface: almost invariably either saccharine banality or derivative metaphysical drivel?

PS: Part of me was quite grateful for the removal of the distance plates in the final 50km or so. When you pass four or five of the things in a kilometre or so it gets very irritating very quickly to watch the numbers (to 3 decimal places!!??) decrease so slowly.