Stories and News

Stories and News No. 872 Tomorrow will be thirty years since the advent of the Internet in Italy, since the first connection dates back to April 30, 1986. Well, after three decades Italy is the country with the lowest number of inhabitants connected to the Internet in Europe, with the most expensive and slowest connection . So, here is how tomorrow an ordinary man will celebrate the event in the real Italian world... My name is Giovanni, and today is a great day. You must know that three days ago, after repeated warnings, re-thoughts and various manifestations of forgiveness waiting for my rescue, once and for all the company have disconnected the power in my house. Now you might say: why is he rejoicing before such a misfortune? What's the hurry? I would reply. Let me get to the end, and everything will be understandable. I was saying, finally the electrical source has dried up, but it was inevitable. If the mountain lips close, therefore the rivers dry up, and then ...

Stories and News No. 871 Today I have two news. First, I read that thanks to a long search by a US university it was discovered that spanking has aggressiveness as side effect and, second, after the hospital bombing in Aleppo, Syria, 27 dead, including children and medics, Doctors without Borders organization had to remind everyone: hospitals are #notatarget . Well, let war be, then... Spanking makes us aggressive. Yes. And hospitals are not a target. Agree. Listen, while you are there, take a larger sheet and armed yourself with a generous pen and a good dose of patience. Because even slapping make us aggressive, for your consideration. As those given to someone else other than the beardless viewer. The pain can be the same for the latter. Sometimes even more. While you are there, add that schools are not a target too. And, if we could be honest, you may easy write also a generic homes, or huts, shacks and other architectural misery that the world not included in th...

Stories and News No. 870 In the old Europe, Austria rises high its anti migrant cry : we are ready to use the army. It was a darker than usual night, when the elder man stirred in his sleep. Meanwhile, the brain stood up and started to scream. Because this is what angry cervices do when rise up straight. Shouting, yelling loudly. Ignoring that the height does not instill credibility to the speech, as the bitterness in the tone. Provided that the sense of the speech was the real reason of everything. "They come to corrupt us", the brain screamed brutalizing without saving the vocal cords. "They want to rule in our house, erasing our history and our traditions. "«The belly is empty», they use to say, provided that it is true. "So, what we have to do? What we got to do with the hell is happening south of the lungs?" "The problem is that they are too many, this is the truth. And they all want to come to us." "They say that it wo...

Stories and News No. 869 Tomorrow, April 23, 2016, is the World Book Day ... Everything . Yes, I know, bear with me as well, but often it was everything. A wife and a husband, both parents and a son, or even just something that will wait for you endlessly. It will not ask you anything but eyes. Curious fingers and will. To walk together. There is time, there is always time, do not listen to those who used to tell you that they do not have even a minute. You need just a second, listen. Indeed, read. Because it is everything, it can be everything. I understand, despise me, judge me too. But with it I was a woman, tall and old, young and beautiful, or just convinced of being it. To become one day. Or not anymore. I was the worst person in the world, I saw death with my own eyes, I have killed and brought life into the world, I disintegrated planets and, more than anything else, I forgot the pain. Because reading means to live the missing life. What always will. The ...

Stories and News No. 868 Araminta Ross, aka Harriet Tubman , activist for the abolition of slavery and women's suffrage, has earned the distinction of being the first Afro-American woman on a US banknote . I can die but once, Harriet said . Like all great persons who spent their existence for the rights of many, there are an infinite number of times when she will back into life... My name is Harriet and I'm not dead. I'm not dead when I found out that the real chains are made of human skin, the most resistant metal in the world. And I did not die even when I was about to convince myself that there was something right, meaningful, even normal. In human skin chains. I'm not dead when I realized how much I was deluded to think that having free hands and feet was enough to have peace. And I'm not dead when I finally realized that having peace was not enough to get hands and feet free. I'm not dead when flipping through the pages of the mirror I found a m...

Stories and News No. 867 2016 World Press Freedom Index : leaders paranoid about journalists… Imagine a country. Now take the paper, the great one. Made especially for great countries. Draw it among them. Indeed, place it at the bottom of the latter. As if it held up all alone, with a pride fueled by memories of its own history and what it has been forgotten. Now focus your attention on one of the most powerful achievements of a great country, one of those used to tell around, with puffed-arched chest: I am among the great countries. I refer to an art among many to tell stories , convinced that the true part is arguably larger than the rest. Call it news , if that reassures you more. Here, right now, let's assume that in the great country among the great ones such portentous practice is victim of a spell. An evil jinx among the worst in the history of magic. Sometimes triggered by too alien forces for a great country, often self-inflicted. A terrible, unnamed curs...

Stories and News No. 866 Sunday, April 17, 2016, as citizens of this Italian Republic, we can decide on the possible repeal of the rule that allows to extend the hydrocarbons extraction concessions within 12 nautical miles from the Italy coast to exhaustion. Despite there is someone who invites us to give up to our right... Select the purpose. Find an excuse. And, maybe if you have time, read something. Do it for stubbornness . Because you were so even as a child, when you were told that you could not do that thing. And you were there to do it as soon as you had the chance. Not seen, of course. O brazenly into the spotlight of existing authority, teachers, parents or guardians. Do it for curiosity . Do not say that you already know everything, that you are perfectly familiar with the story. It is not true and you know it. Sum the times you have cast your vote and those where someone has taken advantage of the unearned privilege of doing for you. Then you tell m...

Stories and News No. 865 "In desperate times Austria could completely close the Brenner," said recently the Minister of Defense Hans Peter Doskozil. Continuing the dance... Walls against migration, think if we did it too, says one of the two. It would be a disgrace, says her friend. But you know the craziest thing? What is? It's all a tragic, ridiculous and dull waltz , just a dance. Of different, yet equal, time and melodies. Once they build walls, with unwavering firmness and deep fear. And afterwards they shoot down them, with as much vigor and pride. Certain to be at least better than the evil ancestors. Once they massacre entire populations with unspeakable cruelty. And afterwards they condemn even those who dare to be not ashamed of this common stain on history. Once they conquered rights and freedom for those left out of the celebration of opportunities. And afterwards they pretend to not recall the many still waiting for. Opportunities. Once t...

Stories and News No. 864 Lost in the Arizona mountains, Ann Rodgers and his dog survived for nine days drinking pond water and feeding on plants. The rescue came thanks to HELP made up on the ground with sticks and stones by the seventy-year old woman. HELP, one of several forms of the saving words… A id, let’s say it, let’s start with the very first one, so the list is on the way, as the story. On the other hand, at least alphabetically it enjoys precedence, for its deafening spread too. Well beyond our ability of hearing, otherwise, a grateful silence would go on a moment after. B reak, give us a break is what too many murmur, do not scream, because the strength is low, but that does not mean they are not trying to cross the wall. Please, give us a break with adding nationality, probable origins or even the color of the skin of the alleged criminal, pointed cleverly used on the front pages of so-called important media. C ourage, courage is what the rejected stories ask the...

Stories and News No. 863 According to UNICEF in Greece, in unacceptable conditions, there are more than twenty-two thousand children... There is no room for everyone. In the castle there is no room for everyone, but the prince has worked, has worked hard and eventually found a place for them. Who dared to cross the moat filled by dark slime, challenging the fairs within. Those are the ones who have climbed the walls, and that despite thousands loving or just traveling companions were killed along the way to heaven that really heats up, they have come across. Where they say there is no better life, easier and longer. But life there must necessarily be, because the other side is now running out. Meanwhile they stand, breathing becomes normal and dreams increase in volume. There had dreams before to arrive, let alone now. However, this is not good, because that is how the gift of grace works: okay, I have taken out the plug from your heart, but do not you dare to bleed on th...

Stories and News No. 862 The list with the names continue to be spread by newspapers, day after day, to be sipped with skill, in order to keep the readers glued to the next revelation. No problem with that, it is a trivial publishing marketing’s rule, just as it is equally obvious the comments by exposed VIPs: “I didn’t now, someone opened an account without my knowledge, behind my back they bought me houses and boats in the tropics, I don’t even know where the pool’s water where I'm reading the slander about me comes from, to be honest.” That is why I prefer to talk about who are not in that list... Maybe I am wrong. That is more than plausible, I make a lot of mistakes, I have behind an entire career made by errors. However, I am almost certain that the condominium concierge where I live is not in the offshore account holders list. Yes, all right, last week I saw he had a less used sweater than usual and he was also smoking a not among the cheapest cigarettes brand, bu...

Stories and News No. 861 According to Amnesty International in 2015 there was the highest number of executions in twenty-five years... "What is death penalty ?" Asks the girl child to the father one moment before. "What is death penalty ?" Asks the young boy to his mother, at the same time, another place, for completely different reasons. The father does not expect the question, he would not answer, he did not want to hear it at all. But their time is the only one, and nothing can be left out for the sake of those who will survive the sliced groove. "It’s when we turn off a life that has canceled another from the earth," he says measuring his words with detachment, as if it were not personally related to himself. The mother is surprised too, she would not speak and did not want to be her, the most suitable woman to respond. But the occasion is that, the only one, and nothing can be ignored for the sake of those who will walk in sliced groove. ...

Stories and News No. 860 There was an explosion. A loud bang , you should have listened. You might still feel the echo and I have no idea how much longer the waves caused by yet another emptiness will travel. But they are not like those created by little stones thrown into the water, or worse, by a tsunami that hits the headlines only when a rich towel was found on the beach. These vibrations are desperately looking for a home. Memory, words. At best, normal empathy. That's why you still feel it, if you pay attention with that kind of underestimated ear protruding from heart. Because home, memory, words, normal empathy, they never found them. There was an explosion, I told you. And, what interests you most, there are also the dead. The injured. And the missing ones. All the usual story, or the book that comes out when the writer is called death and the publishers, well... the publishers are us. Even if we used to think of being just impotent readers. I also have ph...