Stories and News

Stories and News No. 724 Once upon a time there was a town. Many fell to the town coming from north to south, since its founding. Ab Urbe condita , using an easier expression for healthy memory persons and not for the others. All affirming to have the right answer. Which people needed the most. Just one answer , without vain syntactic and semantic harpings. You know, people have a lot of unresolved questions. When someone comes to simplify they see him as god on earth. The word becomes flesh. What animal or carcass was it does not count. So the day when Matteo Salvini had come to the town arrived. No, not him , another Matteo Salvini . Beautiful and tall, so we do not get confused. Here I just tell a story, I can make some joke, people’s lives do not depend on it. Matteo was a few moments from his long-awaited debut. He was closed in the camper and was rehearsing the speech he should tell in front of the crowded square. In that time someone knocked at the door. ...

Stories and News No. 723 It has happened in Messina, Sicily (Italy). Not in exotic lands of third world. A couple paid € 30,000 to buy an eight years old Romanian child. The transaction would have been successful without the intervention of the police. I wonder, would it have been a good deal? What is the market price of a child? I enlarge my eyes. I expand the frame to the utmost. Up to put at risk my imagination’s boundaries. Because you need a particular abstraction to visualize such a store. Cautiously I come in. I walk and I see them. I try to watch them A shelf, like many others. That like burns there, where what I strenuously defend inside me resists. I hope to still have it today and every tomorrow will follow. They are there, a lot of them. Wrapped with care, but also packed in a hurry. Enfolded in shiny paper, but also locked up in anonymous bags. There are three for the price of two . And there are family size . There are even in a light version . S...

Stories and News No. 722 "Italy has wasted the opportunity to give the EU a different address, based on respect for human rights, fight against discrimination, and in particular on policies on immigration issue that gave priority to saving lives." These words are from the general director of Amnesty, accompanying the publication of the usual annual report about human rights. This year is even more tragic than the last. That is the usual problem of us. And them... Once upon a time there was the land of us . The land of us was inhabited by people whose names were easy to pronounce. Me , you , myself , me again , always you , me too , what about you? , and so on. Outside there were them . Their names were not easy to pronounce. According to us , obviously. He , she , the others , all the other ones , that guy , that girl , these guys , go away and come back to your land , etc. Now, I have to say that many of us were not nice with them. The reasons are many an...

Stories and News No. 721 While most of Italy debates and anguish before the feared hashtag #We_Are_Coming_O_Rome , in the world that remains life continues. Most often must, otherwise the fridge remains empty. This paradoxical composition of existences moves my imagination to the following story... Once upon a time there was an island. On the island there were two tribes. The two tribes were different. There is little to add. Being different, they lived in a dissimilar way. One had chosen the highest point of the island. The top of the mountain. And not for the sake of the good air. The above inhabitants did not choose high places in obedience to the passion for something, but the fear of it. And where is terror to influence your heart’s beating, rather than the interest in something new, there is no space to relax. Hard to do, when you spend most of the time both eyes fixed on the horizon. Awaiting the inevitable arrival of him. The frightening enemy invader. On th...

Stories and News No. 720 After his recent statements on the excessive presence of black players in Italian youth football teams, Arrigo Sacchi and almost all his supporters deny the charges of racism saying that the coach was referring to foreign players. So, it was 'just' the proud defense of Italic identity and dignity. I think this is a disease very widespread in Italy, even where you least expect it. Often, the worst racist is who does not know to be... There are them. And they are many. There are those who seeing a black man immediately would image him praying Muhammad. Before any other god. Atheist is excluded. And there are those who meeting a black woman would first have to ask where she came from. Since when she lives here, how her country is and so on questioning. Even before knowing her name. Let alone her dreams. There are those who encountering a black guy would assume he could not speak their language. At the risk of getting someone very fam...

Stories and News No. 719 It happened, it is not something new, that the ceiling of a school lose pieces. This time we speak about a school in Pescara, Italy, where two young students have been wounded. Nevertheless, as the show, the lessons must go on... Once upon a time there was a country. I do not say which one. Let’s remain vague, or presumed, that is the best way. In this country there was a school. In the school there was a class. In the class there was the usual stuff. Teacher and students, desks and chairs, blackboard, chalk and eraser. In short, all according to the script. So far. We soon take back the obvious, so the most impatient readers do not flee before starting. The count of the wonders. In the class of the school in the unnamed country lessons were not easy. Not because the teacher was unable. Look, imagine the educator of the year, so to speak. Not because the students were suffering from acute bullying or worse. Listen, let’s make it easy: ta...

Stories and News No. 718 In Italy a newborn baby girl died on ambulance because of a respiratory crisis, on the way to the hospital. Apparently , in her town’s clinics there were no place for her . This happened in Catania, Sicily. This is her short history... My name is Nicole and I was just born. Here, now. Let's say a little while ago. Very little. I know nothing about you. I have no idea what I would find. I do not know what the word life means to you. To be born. Freeing eyes and breathe. Not necessarily in that order. But, what does order count? How important will it be since the time you are living is the first one? I was born and that matters to me. To my mother and dad. But you, I do not know you. I did not know who I would have found out there. Barely I realized that the other voice was my father. But, now, what is the relevance of things imagined there? When you see the light you've only dreamed of, you are open to everything and everyone. Y...

Stories and News No. 717 In Chapel Hill, USA, Craig Stephen Hicks shot and killed Yusor Mohammad, 21, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, and husband of the oldest, Deah Barakat, 23, all students of the University of North Carolina. The three were Islamic... In the silence . Man shoots and kills three young souls. Two girls and a guy in the beginning of life. Three Muslim students. Muslim . An adjective, just a word. Consonants and vowels, letters and sounds. As other words try to extinguish the fire. Religion has nothing to do . Do not make comparisons. No way. It is a madman’s action. It is an isolated incident. Maybe he was provoked. No, nothing to do with religion. Human violence has no limits. Do not associate. Because that was another story. This is the act of a mentally ill person. It is common in the violent society. There have been no claims. Nothing to do with religion. Do not make combinations. Because the similarity is not true. The man was crazy...

Stories and News No. 716 Yet another tragedy on Italian shores near Lampedusa: more than three hundred dead. The survivors say they were forced with guns to embark. Usual indifference on the news. Nevertheless, there is always a story here... Once upon a time there was a family. A foreign family , I challenge anyone to deny it. Dad was an immigrant , mom was a refugee , grandma was a clandestine and the child was a stranger . Unwanted and undesirable persons from every point of view. Above all, under every sky. Because there are people who are luckless since the beginning. And the worst life is for those who before this unhappy fate’s judgment do not surrender. The foreign family was a shining example. In fact, they decided to autonomously write their turning page: they prepared luggage and started their journey. In the sea, of course. Because those who wait for the moment when the novel will justify the price paid in the library believe the new page begins always ...

Stories and News No. 715 Today is a particular day in the so called eternal city. The Registry of Civil Status of the City of Rome has recorded the birth of a child of 4 years. The couple is made of two mothers, from Argentine and Italy. There will be as usual heated discussions, with fierce criticism and felt congratulations. These are the words, the following words. They begin their dance after a few seconds. Imagine then scrolling to see them on an imaginary screen at double speed. Triple and even more. With the volume turned down, hopefully. So let's stop there, listening the only sound that is genuinely meaningful to speak. Dear moms, How many things. How many things I would have to say to you. Not as many as they were written. Exclaimed, and often loudly shouted. These are the following words . They are important, I know. You and all those like me could never ignore them. Because we are the ones that since the curtain closes bring those words on the sh...

Stories and News No. 714 My dearest, Commercials, events, movies, travels, Rome, Venice, Paris, Verona.. I was looking on Google love phrases that inspire me to write something sweet. And what did I find when I typed Valentine? Events, movies and a lot of commercials for travels. How would we do? Do you see us, you and me, coming on a train or a plane? Maybe on a ship... People would run away, scared to death. Perhaps more about me, than you, right? I have always been the most feared among us, but this is normal, because you are the beautiful one, not me. Then you smile and everybody see the teeth, I agree, but even so you are wonderful to me. Maybe my mistake was looking on the internet for the words to tell you what I feel. I must look inside of me. In what's left of me, of course. The horror is back, on TV series, movies and video games, and all are become hunters and gunmen. Luckily you gave me that beautiful gift, last Halloween. A steel helmet... what a gift,...

Stories and News No. 713 The recent fact of the pilot burned alive and subsequent hanging of prisoners by Jordanian government makes me want to be anything else. Everything but a human. And from there, listen to the story, watching the scene, observing the drama. As a mere spectator. Silently... Right now I am the oxygen. Burning with the man. But not dying, because I was not even alive before. You can exist without living. Without suffering for a valid reason. Or for unacceptable stupidity. I am the rope that tightens and steals breath. I am also new oxygen, this time imprisoned outside the thirsty lips. Killed. I am the prisons bars, on every part of the sides, fair effective, fair compassionate. Fair incredulous, more than anything else. I am the words sparingly scattered on the never quieted wounds, cooked to perfection by the not be suspected chefs. Unnamed suspects as these words they are screamed, raped and manipulated. Of Religion and oil, of power and g...