Stories and News

The creature By Alessandro Ghebreigziabiher "A terrible feeling, you have no idea, believe me..." "Sure... tell me everything, Peter." "I’ll try… "The thing... I suddenly realize the thing. "It’s inside of me. "It’s alive, it moves and thinks. "At that moment I understand that it's not a thing... "It's a creature, an alien that lives in me, like that sci-fi movie. "But we’re not in a movie, I don’t live in a movie. "I am a person like many, a common guy, of flesh and blood, who may get hurt, who can die. "Someone who has to worry about himself, because life is already hard on its own, it pushes you to protect you, makes you selfish, because you have to survive. "Because I want to survive. "However, at that very moment I could not think of it anymore... "I felt incredibly weak and helpless, fragile beyond any possibilities, like the most thin tissue paper at the mercy of the ...

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. 1053 Argentina has stopped the rescue operations for its submarine that disappeared 15 days after an explosion, apparently reported on the bottom of the Atlantic off the coast of Patagonia. Still no news of the 44 crew members ... So, here we are. It's time. Ours. In a story, too. A farewell, maybe. Of a dream , undoubtedly. Of many, enclosed in one. Come on, let's read them together and stay close to the missing ones to give each other a true goodnight, with hope, never certainty, to meet again the next morning. Anyway, who can claim to really have it? The first one is dancing in front of a mainland audience that can only admire those who do not fear the waves. The second smiles, because he trusts the Principle of Archimedes applied to the imagination : a dream immersed in a liquid receives a push from the bottom upwards equal to the impossibility of realizing it . The third is playing cards with the fourth and screams of joy, because he w...

Stories and News No. 1044 We are angry , that’s what we scream until voice and heart will burn. You have to listen, you have to watch us, otherwise, we don’t exist. We’re angry with you , that’s what we cry with the neck veins ready to explode. Angry with them . With everybody . We are angry with you because you brought migrants to us. With their dreams. With their aspirations. With their unbearable hope for the future. In short, we are angry, because you brought life next to us. We are angry . Because, if that's not enough, you dare to approach with your microphones, your cameras, your questions, your dreams, your aspirations, expecting to get answers. Anger . That's the reason. This is the product, bought and resold, chewed and vomited. That's what we are. This is the role that someone has chosen for us. No matter who , no matter how . What we have donated is enough to get the worst off. We’re angry , yes, that's what the hidden prompter murm...

Stories and News No. 1043 Twenty-six . Yeah, weird, but that's my name. A number. Exactly, we are numbers . Hurriedly written and thought, distractedly drawn, blindly invoked and sold, as well as consciously forgotten. As if, with due care, from the previous to the next, the popular, international heartbeat makes a perpetual leap. An interruption of clock. The perfect alibi to move on and talk about something else, that’s unjust amounts and undue subtractions, remaining on the subject. Indeed, on the task of human lives math. So, in these days, it happens that twenty-six young Nigerian girls were found dead on a migrant ship in the Mediterranean Sea, and yet guilty inside the common sense. Their is a minor death, after a superfluous existence for the still earth's inhabitants almost as much as their heart. Twenty-six is mine and their name. As many people killed in the massacre of the Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, which was once again squeake...

Stories and News No. 1035 Daphne Caruana Galizia , a Maltese investigative journalist committed against corruption was killed on 16 October in a car bomb attack. In recent times she had been pessimistic about her own country, and watching her premature end, her enemies had good reasons to fear her work. In the last post on her blog , the day of her death, Daphne concluded the article with a phrase that is incredibly emblematic: There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate… The situation is desperate . Of course it is. In the right time. At the very moment when the best life explodes and what should remain intact forever breaks up. Like the perfect memories of even more worthwhile instants to relive. As if perfection itself was inadequate. I write it, then. I'm writing that the situation is desperate . To them. Yes, to you, wherever you’re hiding. Now I’m looking at you. It should not be easy at all, there, under the mask and the dress, b...

Stories and News No. 1032 On October 15, elections will take place in Austria and the country seems to be heading to the Right, with the political agenda focused mainly on immigration and Islam , because of the persuasion’s pressing, monotonous and surgical action by xenophobic coalitions . Nothing new, of course, since for decades this is the common narrative of electoral campaigns almost all over the world . Once upon a time there was a table . A table nowadays entirely covered by disconnected from reality sentences and delusional, semantic eyesores, allegedly proved by the abused popular opinion . Lots of invented and manipulated tales treated like real news , fused with astute ignorance in a confused, imaginary wall , where everyone can write everything, provided you might scream it. Now, give me a favor, do it for me. Get up from your chair, find an excuse for your jailer, the little, big brother who knows how to falsify his height. Use any pretense to anything, pret...

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. 994 Javier Valdez was murdered Monday at noon, near the Ríodoce (Twelfth River) headquarters, the newspaper he co-founded in 2003. Valdez has been hit 12 times, in what his colleagues believe is a premeditated aggression because of their common and courageous commitment against drug cartels. A few weeks ago, he had been terrifying premonitory of his fate, when, after the murder of yet another journalist, Miroslava Breach , he had said: " Let them kill us all, if that is the death sentence for reporting this hell. No to silence ." According to an organization for the press freedom, Article 19 , at least 104 journalists have been assassinated in Mexico since 2000 to date. When a journalist is killed. When a journalist is killed, with him, some words die. The ingenuous ones and those who focus on the target. But the sound of each single letter moves apart from the end of the speech and rises even higher when the wind feeds on the bravery of li...

Stories and News No. 986 "There is a chance that we may end up having a big conflict with North Korea. Absolutely," US President told the press. "We would like to settle things diplomatically, but it is very difficult," he added. Once upon a time there was a story . The one we, the so-called adults, know best in the world. Because it is not true that peace is the easiest, most logical and understandable choice. Especially for those who are tormented by nightmares that are far from simple, guided by a not rational mind and do not consider knowledge of facts as a priority to decide the road. That’s the way war began the first time’s dawn. It always starts so, you know? Not with weapons and deadly shots, open wounds and a battle. It starts with fierce looks. And hissing expressions. Hostile gestures. And lack of courtesy. All the possible disadvantages in all presentable occasions. Then they come, the sharpest swords and the most dangerous hits. The...

Stories and News No. 985 Maria Félix is 116 years old, she is old enough to remember a lot of things, but too much to earn the card needed to receive her welfare every month. For the record, we are talking about 1,200 pesos, $63, about 58 euros. "I was told that the limit is 110 years..." Mary said, sitting in the courtyard of her small house in Guadalajara . Once upon a time there was a bank . A bank that is the world, if you think about it. The house that we built and where we went to, believing that it was the best, and above all, possible among the worlds. Well, being a world, it’s a wide and colorful space, where you can really be everything. All that matters to a bank, of course. To figure it out, let's start from the borders . An inseparable line, like every decisive and respectful wall, in the form of a counter that reveals the mere essential thing on both sides of the common living. That’s the only granted portion of humanity through the magical po...

Stories and News No. 982 Terrorism is for those who want to scare, the very first one is trivial. No matter who he really is, why does not counts, only the effect does. Terrorism is useful to those who were already afraid, so now they feel less alone. Even in such a case they do not matter how or why , the feeling is priceless. Terrorism is the cure-all for the one who loves to be afraid and nothing more. Let us figure out the weight of who , how and why . Terrorism is good to those who are not afraid at all, but they see how it works. Above all, they knows the past history. The countless occasions where the show of death and violence, if bathed by the brightest lights, has a magical power. In a matter of seconds, it extends the looks, completely extinguishes intelligences that are already overwhelmed by an idiotic marathon at a low price and dissipates the courage of an entire society, which, like a tiny candle, finds itself at the mercy of the affected winds. Who , how ...

Stories and News No. 980 Roberto Berinstain has lived in the US for 20 years , managing a restaurant with his wife, before being deported to Mexico this week. Although undocumented, the man had a Social Security number, driver's license, permission to work legally and no criminal record. Everything went according to the recently written script by the new US administration, other than the fact that Roberto's wife voted for Trump ... Once upon time there were friends . I hope the highest will control them, they used to say. Maybe because up there all is more evident. Distinguishing the wheat from the chaff. Among those who really shake hands with intention and those that draw on facial expressions cooked in due course. Among those who have such a hurry to embrace you rising doubts whether it is really an hug and those who did not need to get close to show you the best. The danger, as often happens, comes from above. So, how it was at the beginning and always will...

Stories and News No. 974 The treaty that officially gave birth to the European Economic Community is an international agreement which established the EEC, the forerunner of today's European Union . It was signed on 25 March 1957 and tomorrow will turn sixty . It is yet another birthday for the old continent, which is a mosaic of words and more or less pronounced lines on the map, loved and idealized, as detested and even hated, especially in the last decade. A complicated design, so... Europe. Europe is like a drawing . And a drawing is like a child’s dream. Who dreams of a drawing himself playing a game. Serious and crucial hobbies are those lived by the beardless creatures of this world, despite the poor memory of the elderly ones. The kid is sitting with crossed legs on the ground, in his bedroom. The bowed head on the floor and the various forms called toys. In other words, as the so-called adults define them. You have noticed, right? The main characters of...

Stories and News No. 973 Once upon a time there were two attacks . Both terrorist . In other words, potentially capable of terrorizing lives and looks, present and future. They equally occurred on March twenty-two, 2017 . However, as it often happens to what makes up our common history, there are more or less significant differences . In one five people died and there were at least forty injured. In the other there are thirty-three deaths , no one survived. In the first one it seems that the bomber is one. In the second, they are many more, although it seems that the finger on the damn button was only one. One have already got the usual claim, with all the usual guesswork out. In the other it is not necessary, because the culprit is clearly visible under the sun. Maybe too much. The first one is a horrible thing and it is natural to grieve, right to get angry and required to investigate the facts in the shadows. The second is just as horrendous and it would be natur...