Stories and News

Stories and News No. 1108 In an era when populist semantics feeds on fear and lies, there is a need for a new language, capable of nourishing hopes that have never been completely defeated . “Mary,” said the man, seeing the sad tones in his daughter's eyes. “ What's going on with you?” “Nothing.” “Well, tell me about nothing, then.” She looked at the crazy parent with a tattered brain that life had given her, but he was present. And if that far from obvious eventuality was guaranteed, one can be patient even in the face of daily meaningless conversation. “Today, during the in-class essay I remained mute. I delivered a blank sheet.” “Why? Did you not even make a drawing?” “Dad ... I'm sixteen, I'm in high school.” “What’s the problem? You can’t make drawings in high school?” The girl snorted bored and mechanically grabbed the phone. “What was the topic?” Her father insisted, sitting on the bed’s edge. “ List the main problems of modern society ,” she quo...

Stories and News No. 1107 Once upon a time a world in conflict. Born from it, grown on it and so used to consider it just one of the many possibilities of a harmonious society. In the conflicting world two different types of creatures lived and contrasted, with more or less conscious coherence: people inclined to use the left hand as a priority solution, and those who instead preferred the right one . You could make everything easier, by synthesizing them in left and right-handed , but this one, despite what some might tell you, is not at all a simple story. As proof of that, at the beginning of the latter it was much more immediate to distinguish the two sides. Trivializing, left hand meant preferring the peaceful way to the bellicose response, the diplomatic solution to the armed one, standing without delay on the weakest part’s side, without any discrimination, fighting social or merely human inequalities, maintaining an always open and flexible attitude before life change...

Stories and News No. 1106 History can be repeated, as well as its mistakes and convictions. The following words are (not so freely) inspired by the closing speech during the Nuremberg Trial , which took place from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946, by the prosecutor Robert Jackson . Immigrants are more and more today Jews , and when we will finally understand it, it will probably be too late... It is impossible, in this conclusion, to do more than to highlight the indelible quantities of vital points of the gloomy and degrading datum about this trial. Witnesses of atrocities on a large scale, of cruelty and inhumanity, stories of mass deportations, of people reduced to slavery and annihilation of minorities. Events that will go down in history as the dark side of this twenty-first century . Shame, depravity, terror were the order of the day. Immigrants arrested without charge, imprisoned without defenders, deported without trial. Families blocked at the border, such as pa...

Populist leader By Alessandro Ghebreigziabiher Somewhere, long ago, even yesterday, as in this precise moment... "Good morning, sit down, please." "Good morning, thank you." "Should I shut the door?" "No, leave it, at least some air will come in." "Okay." "Well, you’re here for the populist leader’s call, do you confirm?" "Yes, sure." "It’s so hot... don’t you think?" "Summer has begun." "Yup… before we start, do you want something to drink?" "Very kind, but no, thank you." "Don’t you feel thirsty? I am dying…" "No, I'm fine, thanks again." "I see… so, I was saying, you would like to become a populist leader, right?" "Exactly." "Ouch..." "What's the matter?" "What the matter? Damn mosquitoes... this year they haven’t yet done the disinfestation. Obviously we cannot keep the win...

Stories and News No. 1105 Dear Martin Luther King*, From an insignificant sender to an example become myth, from my future to your apparently different past, from one nation surprisingly similar to yours, from one discrimination to another - so unconsciously identical, I think, from my often underestimated freedom to your unjust imprisonment. Fifty-five years also divide us, but yesterday as today , being on the side of the oppressed ones, those who will not easily give you friends’ and relatives’ applauses, let alone percentage points in your political career or any field, it is not an easy road. Yet today, like yesterday, injustice reigns. And just as today, like yesterday, we cannot remain idly seated and not be worried about what is happening. You were right then, and you are even more in this hard time: everything that touches directly one, it indirectly regards all of us. Nonetheless, even in my country the voices that on the contrary show restlessness before overly coh...

Stories and News No. 1104 Too bad about that girl, I told myself coming home. She was not just cute, but also had a deep and smart look. A beautiful voice too, which is not obvious. We were chatting so well, there in the square, with all the favorable ingredients. A lovely, sunny not too hot day that was going to end peacefully, work behind and all the time in my hands. But then... then she pulls out her pamphlets and the magic instantly ends. I do not think she wanted to speak only for that, but her gesture inevitably froze the moment’s spontaneity. It's important, she explains, Amnesty International is doing things to help the world’s last ones, and contributions from people like you are vital, she adds. I repeat, if I think about it even now with a cold mind, I'm almost certain we could continue the mutual acquaintance, but her sudden script’s change, even if with noble intentions, forced me to immediately close our common story. I'm sorry, I told her before t...

Recovery community By Alessandro Ghebreigziabiher At the very beginning it was difficult. It is for everyone. I will never forget the first day in the recovery community. On the other hand, could I forget all the others? In any case, my new companions were there, in the courtyard that hosts everyone, where there is room to meet, if you really want it. "My name is..." I started trying to introduce myself, but I was immediately blocked by my interlocutor. Silence, this is what she said. This is what she asked. Difficult, really difficult. Hard undertaking, to be honest, because I was there to ask for help. To get it, being precise. Nevertheless, I suffered the rejection and armored myself with wounded pride until sunset. The following day I was back in the square, the place of socialization and sharing. I approached the first guy to chat with and I exclaimed: "Hello, I would like..." Identical answer. Silence, this was in fact his reply. Thi...

Stories and News No. 1103 Once upon a time there was an Aquarium . Considered by most as a strange type of container . Of a traveling nature, to name one. Of a possibly perennial path, to be honest. Unless it disappeared on the horizon, or at best for many, below it. In the meantime we observe, we pause our gaze or we turn immediately, because time is short and empathy even less. However, we speak and choose route and destiny, next page and even the story’s end. The latter’s moral is trivial, as it often happens. The message is absolutely obvious, according to the usual script, and the afterword sounds incredibly rhetorical, the exact, bitter picture of modern life. Where for many, undoubtedly too many, existing means to attend the spectacle of others’ misfortunes, unduly getting the role of directors and screenwriters without ever having moved from the audience seat. On the screen the creatures trapped in the prison bowl are swimming in their grim destiny. Humans exhaust...

Stories and News No. 1102 Dear grandparents, These words are for you, that in two different continents rested, separated by a sea whose waters become every day more and more turbid. In life you have never met, and thanks to the privilege of a page and especially the time to fill it - which we should always be grateful of, I imagine you together, maybe sitting in a common living room, heated by the emotion of the moment and from the inexorable quantity of memories to be exchanged. Among the many, the one that went on stage exactly in July 1914, only to come out, for good luck of all the protagonists, just over four years later. I refer, of course, to the first world war, the great one, which will celebrate its centenary next November. I watch you carefully, now, that I have explained the pretext of this oneiric meeting. In detail, the grandmothers are seated on the sofa, while the respective husbands are standing upright, and more or less at the same time your witness memorie...

The invasion By Alessandro Ghebreigziabiher It's a beautiful, early summer day. The sun is hot, but not too much, the current season keeps its promises, as the forecasts did the night before. On the other hand, as Mary always says, can we allow a cell phone voice, even if it told with perfect phrasing the meteorological indications, to decide what to do with our time? In any case, therefore, in the early hours of the morning of that holy Saturday she would have loaded in the car umbrellas, buckets and pallets, as well as complete sonship, to go to the nearest beach. However, nowadays you are no longer protected from them. The human antivirus, self-enlisted in the ranks of the guardians of global security. In fact, as soon as the woman has placed the food on the towel for a quick snack, as an intermediate step between a dive and yet another sand castle, the alarm triggers: attention, danger, check the borders of the towel, patrol the sacred edges! "Who's ta...

Stories and News No. 1101 Welcome. They are, yes they do. In places where you least expect that, if you stopped here, a handful of words from completeness and, above all, thought basis. But on the other hand, is not avoiding such nuisances that today the fiercely populist citizen draws his indisputable conclusions? Is it not with the same approximation that he judges and then votes? In short, is not it enough reading the article’s title to delegate the fate of one or more generations? Nevertheless, if you found time and curiosity to go further, I tell you that ten thousand immigrants from all over the world moved last year to Australia , a record country for the classification. In the total absence of protests, on the traditional as digital public square. With just as much easiness, in the United States nine thousand illegal persons have magically become citizens with a sudden, unusual wand’s blow, the blinding and silent type’s, which shines and resonates only in excl...

Stories and News No. 1100 You did it. Finally you succeeded in your purpose, more or less consciously. The government of populists has got the power. Did I say populists ? Oops, sorry, I meant... in fact, I want to tell you the truth, I would always like to, story or news that it is. I meant fascists , yes. The fascists have returned to lead our country. And as much as you can now tear your clothes off and show yourself indignant, it is you who have helped them. You are the one who elected them, exactly, as unshakable supporter of the wonderful world of the so-called social-democratic , reformist, centre-left party, and other misleading definitions. Obviously, it is not the overvalued cross on the symbol, which I refer to, but all the countless occasions when you cleared the way to supremacy for the intolerant professionals. Sitting in the shelter of a term that you have inexorably emptied of all meaning. Left , just like that, along with the indispensable topics whi...