Stories and News

Stories and News No. 1311 Nothing new in the premise of this umpteenth story: a privileged minority exploits the earth's riches, causing suffering and death among the majority of human beings. And the grotesque paradox, which is incomprehensible to any living creature on our planet, is that sooner or later this stupid attitude will harm everyone, without exception. In particular, today's story is about water. Or what the problem is. One cannot help but agree with Professor Hannah Cloke of the University of Reading in the UK when she states in the inspiring article that more than climate change and population growth, the real problem is social inequality, which causes the situation explained inside the incipit. However, when I read in the same article that constantly irrigated swimming pools and lawns in large cities contribute to the enormous gap between the few who take water for granted and all the others, this leads me to think that the problem is another one. Or one of ...

Stories and News No. 1221   November, 2020. We won. Once again we won. Because we are still alive. Because surviving is our triumph. And the simple daily life, which follows this unexpected primacy, is the prize. The first time the virus appeared and made its roar heard in the world, our world - immensely more tangible and vast than yours, it was in another country. Another nation. With different and at the same time similar humanity, identical for the undervalued preciousness of living and incomparable for overestimated trifles. Nonetheless, none of us has ever dreamed of considering those people as cruel planners of the evil or perfidious infectors. Because for us senseless hatred has a very high price and when you are forced to buy it, we know how the story ends. For the record, it was June 1976 and in the aforementioned sister land, nearly 300 were infected by the most invisible enemy of human beings, a creature of negligible size and proportionally inverse danger. At lea...

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...

Stories and News No. 1096 Where nothing is. Where there is nothing , fourteen years old Wesal Sheikh Khalil has died. She was one of over sixty victims in Gaza last Monday while Israeli snipers fired tens of thousands of protesters along the perimeter fence. Where there is still now a whole nothingness , a young girl had already made plans for her funeral: "If they were to shoot me during the protests at the border, Mom, bury me in the exact spot where I died, or maybe, next to my grandfather's grave." Because where there is nothing , Wesal thought death was better than her life, that’s what her mother said the day after her youngest daughter’s disappearance. This happens where nothing was and still is. Because where there is only emptiness , with an unprecedented ease, you could give love. Almost as much as that which allows you to sell hatred and resentment, masking them for the latter. In fact, the power of nothing in the hands of others is immense. Eve...

Stories and News No. 1093 The nationalist’s paradox... He says, I'm a rightist , and he yells as well. I’m for everyone in his country , he remarks immediately afterwards. Defending the local product , he adds with renewed vigor, given the results of recent elections. Our values and our culture come first of all , he explains with emphasis. Maybe sheltered by a reassuring keyboard and the convenience of an Ikea armchair, as the table in the kitchen, the bedside ones in the bedroom and all the new shelves that are so nice to put on the pretty little things. Never books, never. Ikea is also Swedish , he observes, Nordic, Aryan and blonde like us... and so on. But they lied, it is pointed out, the meatballs that they have sold until today as a typical dish are Turkish ... He remains banned, with a hanging expression, so his brain, like the laptop hourglass where the user's request imposes a surplus of work. Thus, according to the dialectical rules of modern right-h...

Not for sale By Alessandro Ghebreigziabiher Once again in the future, maybe a not so far one... Hello, I would like to fill it up. A traveler? Yes I am, sure. First trip? Yes right... how did you get it? Your eyes. What do you mean? It's a classic, young friend, it's typical of you novices of global navigation to show that tender sparkle, still unremarkable. Is it a bad thing? No, not at all, don’t misunderstand me, it's just the way it is. I see. So, you said full, right? Exact. And you want to go far, don’t you? That's right... this is also typical? Very typical. And that’s the way it is. Good, I see you’re smart. Well, can we go? Here I am: are you ready? Yes. So, the western world is inhabited by honest and civil persons, fearful of the Lord and observing public morality. They are recognizable by a light skin, of delicate features, neat hair, as well as personal care and hygiene. They have common roots and traditions, sharing ...

S P A M By Alessandro Ghebreigziabiher First announcing messages sound . I cannot take it anymore, Jenny. What are you talking about, Paul? That damn spam, every morning I find the emails full of this absurd garbage, including remedies on how to improve my performance in bed and the usual millionaire inheritance from the other side of the world. And you call it problems? You can’t imagine what tragedy one of my students is living at home. Yet he has always a smile for everybody... Why is he laughing? Is he stupid? No, he has a gift. What would it be? The ability to play down even in the worst situations. But if someone fails even in the smallest ones... Don’t act like a teacher with me, please. Second announcing messages sound . Here it is... other spams arrived just now, do they hate me? It's not a personal thing, Paul, they send them randomly. What? Arbitrarily to everybody, genius. Thanks prof. Anyway, listen to this, I’ve got the same many times. Apparen...

Stories and News No. 1055 Francine is a common adolescent, to a hasty eye. Even to one with time to sell , if you know what I mean. It happens often that, in order to understand others, gaze and other overrated senses are not enough. In any case, Francine should make a composition, even if she doesn’t want it, but her grades are going down day by day. Title : What are computer viruses? She’s going to write, but then she decides to start with the classic copy from the internet, to be sure of having said at least something right: A computer virus is a program that infects the PC, while creating copies of itself, usually without being detected by the user, just like biological viruses. Those who make and spread viruses are called hackers, who take advantage of the weakness of operating systems to damage computers, slowing down or conditioning their functioning . Francine remains with the pen suspended on the sheet and, as it often happens when she comes across something that ma...

Stories and News No. 1050 A group of activists made a replica of the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, and then they secretly placed it on Björn Höcke's home, far-right AfD’s politician who says Germans should stop atoning for Nazi guilt … Dear victims , Of yesterday, tomorrow, more than ever today. I’m writing to you, who bear on your own skin the signs of the legalized infamy and shared on time as “the voice of the people”, then sold as “understandable anger”, and from the same, privileged position manipulated and synthesized, to be sold back to the same deceitful screamers, in the form of slogans and delusional government programs . You've got the answer, since you have paid the price of such inhumanity with your life. You know it, because you’ve been paying the bribe right now, at this precise moment, while those words are flowing on the page and maybe some eyes are reading. Tell us, please. What is wrong with us? How do we are so terribly obtuse to repeat fo...

Stories and News No. 1046 I read that Researchers from Edinburgh University have identified 419 accounts among the 2,752 ones recently suspended by Twitter in the United States that, on behalf of the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA), operated to influence British politics. One of them aimed at provoking anti-Islamic sentiments in the hours after the Westminster Bridge terror attack in March, publishing among others a photo depicting a Muslim woman walking beside the victims, ignoring them with obvious indifference. This image was then shared on many English newspapers, including Mail Online and Sun, as well as thousands social networks pages and lots of international websites ever looking for such pseudo scoop. Now it emerges that the aforementioned picture was false , having been remodeled through a digital manipulation software... My name is Troll . By name and fact. This is my job, this is the mission, this is the profit. That's what you bought. I'm here fo...

Stories and News No. 1023 A large part of the first speech given by the US President to the United Nations is everywhere on the news. Nevertheless, we are all human. The debut before the UN audience, heavily crowded for the occasion, would shake their legs to anyone, even if skilled in hiding the thrill. To prove that, here is a “faithful” storytelling of what happened in the presidential actor's room, in front of the oldest friend, maybe the only one for whom is perpetually forced to conceal himself behind a mask. The inseparable, silent and revealing mirror... Here we are. Let’s do it, Donny , it's your turn. Enjoy it, enjoy every second of it. Who would have ever said that, uh? I still cannot believe it. If they told me that ten years ago, I would have called them crazy. That's right, it's a mad thing and it's all mine. It's the world to be out of control and I take advantage of it. Calm down, Don , stay calm. Don’t laugh, I recommend it....

Stories and News No. 1022 Here I am. Here we are. It's right there that I try to see myself. Exactly at that spot where I imagine the many. Now, at the very moment I write. Just when we know little or nothing. Instant that will be almost identical at the end of the story, despite the words will have been totally blown out, and the most bloody images will have entirely covered eyes and virtual homes, monitors and even negligible memory portions. Of course, the bomb is there. Of course, the victims deceased or just wounded too, otherwise we would not be here, right now. That is, at best, the reason would be far less sad, and I suppose many people would have preferred not to widen their curiosity’s window on yet another hell’s spark on the favorable side of the world. Nevertheless, more than anything else, there is the familiar scene. Explosion, murdered or endangered lives, and the latter, the friendly environment. You know, the bitter blend is ideal to instantly ca...

Stories and News No. 1014 Once upon a time there was the G20 . But also the G8 and the G7, all possible and manageable G’s. Even the G1 , which is the most credible synthesis, that is, a single, compact grumbling of dull power unable to look beyond the current stock market response. That's old story, isn’t it? Yet it repeats, but doesn’t change, do you agree? Basically, I mean. Scripts and jokes are ever the same, come on. You can hire (elect) new actors (leaders) every time, but the show of the privileged, colonialist, most polluting, warlords and exploiters of the world (the most industrialized countries), it’s identical. Except for newer wigs and more or less eccentric behaviors, the movie review is unchanged. He said this, he replied this other, they disagree, he offended that other, the latter replied, everyone apologized, because they were misunderstood and the nothingness on what is most pressing for the majority of terrestrial creatures is on the plate. Do you...

Stories and News No. 1012 Two Afghan girls refused visas to the United States during a competition on robot construction. The story emerged as it was linked to the current US temporarily ban against six Muslim-majority countries, although Afghanistan is not among them. Nonetheless, the robot has been welcomed, except for the two young creators. I think that is the synthesis of our increasingly paradoxical society... We are invading people. We are by nature. We are also because that’s what History says, where the body lied. Nevertheless, we are also an incredibly raidable species. Despite the media’s and subtly interested storytelling 's manipulations , the demonstration is clear, as a simple fairy tale, good for infants as well. Every day, now, even at this precise moment, we let us invade by useless words, scrambled and misleading expressions. We have let them occupy our brain and heart, as if it were the same thing, childish lying easy to break by the first intell...

Stories and News No. 1011 Tateh Lehbib Braica - aka " The crazy bottle guy ", had the idea of building circular homes with plastic waste that could protect from wind and sun. The news reached the headquarters of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Geneva, and the project was funded with 55,000 euros . It’s the misunderstood, and more than ever underestimated, magic of the rejected creatures on this planet. They’re drawing horizons with the latter’s crumbs...   Then you wonder why. Think about it, brother, it's easy to understand. Look at them, take a deep look. You have so much , but you throw away more . You used to see little , and yet you have everything before your eyes. Photo: Pablo Mediavilla Costa/El Pais However, you keep on asking, don’t you? Why are they going back? What causes them to insist? What is the secret of such endurance? Think about it, think of you. Turn your head, closed the foolish judgment’s eyes, and for a momen...