3. Watch to see if the hologram flickers

Mayor in stocks. In most countries, the only way you can punish politicians and civil servants for not doing a proper job is by not voting for them in the next elections. But in Bolivia, they have a thing called “social justice”.

The people of San Buenaventura, a small town in northern Bolivia, recently made good use of their constitutional right to social justice by putting their mayor, Javier Delgado, in stocks for an hour. Photos of the disgraced mayor sitting on the ground with one leg trapped in the medieval restraining device while surrounded by angry townspeople have been doing the rounds on South-American social media and news sites since late February.

Mayor Javier Delgado was supposed to inaugurate a bridge built with state and municipal funds, but when he got to the site, he was shocked to learn that the crowd waiting for him was not there to attend the event, but teach him a lesson. Without even bothering to explain what he was being punished for, they just grabbed Delgado and put him in wooden stocks.

“They didn’t even give me the opportunity to find out why they were submitting me to this punishment, but I did not put up resistance knowing that there was a risk of things escalating even further,” the mayor told La Razon. “Later, they gave me the opportunity to explain and then they apologized to me, as they saw that they had been manipulated and misinformed by these people.”

By “these people” Delgado means his political adversaries and local entrepreneurs who are trying to undermine the work he has done in over two years of service to the community. He claims these people are in the pocket of river transporters and logging companies, the interests of which have been affected by some of his policies.

This was actually the third time that mayor Javier Delgado got a taste of social justice during his two-and-half year term. The first time, he was put in stocks just a few months after coming into office, while the second time, members of the community took over his office and kept him away for two months. Fearing for his life, he fled to a neighboring town, until a commission of indigenous authorities put an end to the conflict.

“I am one of only a few people in the whole country who have been subjected to these traditional punishments,” Delgado complained.

I wonder why that is, though…

Like many other indigenous communities in Bolivia, the people of San Buenaventura govern themselves according to three basic principles “ama qhuilla, ama llulla, ama suwa (do not be lazy, do not be a liar, do not be a thief)” and resort to social justice whenever someone infringes any of them. Social justice has been included in the country’s constitution in 2009, although it is only acceptable in the case of minor crimes, like trespassing private property or cattle theft. Serious crimes still have to be referred to the courts.

odditycentral

Croatian artist Dino Tomic usually works with conventional materials like pencils and paper, but his latest project has him spreading kitchen salt on a black background to create incredible artworks and Indian mandalas. The Norway-based salt wizard, who works as an art teacher and tattoo artist, starts off with a large black canvas and uses a plastic bottle or a paper cone to painstakingly squeeze out the grainy mineral until he completes his mind blowing masterpieces.

“My wrist was hurting from so much drawing so I needed to take a break,” the young artist told Buzzfeed. “I started with salt three weeks ago just to relax my wrist, because I only use my shoulder.” Looking at how detailed his creations are, you would think he has been doing this kind of work all his life. However, Tomic says working with salt is very similar to airbrushing, which he had some experience with, so drawing with the basic food ingredient really wasn’t very hard to get into.

That doesn’t mean creating such detailed works of art with salt is an easy job. One of his latest designs, a giant Indian Mandala, reportedly took him 25 hours to complete, over a period of three days. Knowing just how much time and patience goes into each one of these beautiful salt paintings makes watching Tomic casually destroying them in just a few seconds after they’re done even more painful.

Ever since he started working with salt, and especially after posting a couple of portraits of characters from the uber-popular Game of Thrones TV series, Dino Tomic’s Instagram profile simply blew up. His new art form has been picked up and featured by dozens of high-profile design websites and blogs, and his follower count is constantly growing. Somehow I doubt he’ll forget all about salt art it when his wrist pain goes away.

Photos

Dino Tomic/Instagram