Stories and News

Stories and News No. 1245 So, once upon a time the word “news”. News… let's say stuff published somewhere out there, okay? Like a post from the Independent Persian , a recently born newspaper that is not even on Wikipedia; or some Indian newspaper that has copy-pasted it. But you don't pay attention to it, am I right? Do not even think about the editor in chief, Camelia Entekhabifard , who lives in New York, and whose vision is certainly not sympathetic to the Iranian regime, much less the Taliban one. Pay no attention to anything, because what matters today, for you, journalist, blogger or influencer, Youtuber, TikToker, Facebooker and Instagrammer, for you, aspiring star of the fantastic world of viral web, is one thing and one only: the sacred click ! "Show me the money!" Cuba Gooding Jr. and Tom Cruise screamed on the phone in the movie Jerry Maguire. The current version would be: " Show me the clicks! " Click me and I will be happy. So let's g...

Stories and News No. 1236 In our life we are often at war with something or someone. Such a conflict can go on for a long time, in a painful and even bloody way. However, this is often due not to the adversary's tenacity, but to the loss of sight of the fundamental element in any battle: the enemy. Who is the real enemy? Who is our enemy? Who is everyone's enemy? Forgetting this, any war is a gigantic waste of life and time. While the real enemy, our enemy, everyone's enemy, becomes even more difficult to defeat. So it happens that those who take to the streets to save their work find themselves at war against those who defend the lockdown, who ask for distance and closing. While the real enemy, our enemy, everyone's enemy was and still is a virus. It also happens that those who try to cross your borders to start a new life clash with those who are lining up to defend their homeland, more or less in danger. While the only enemy, the real one, the enemy of each peopl...

Stories and News No. 1230 Once upon a time the distribution of vaccines against Covid-19. Indeed, no. I start over. I never particularly liked the word against . I prefer for . So, once upon a time the distribution of vaccines for... Well, reasoning with a minimum criterion of reality, the things become difficult. Extremely easy with a bit of imagination, but the human kind, according to the most natural of meanings. Thus, we could complete the opening words as follows: once upon a time the distribution of vaccines for every human being. We are talking about this, right? Of our fellow people. About that, I recall what that smart guy on zoom said the other day... no, quite the contrary, she was a wise lady during a face to face meeting in the last century, since it is such an atavistic and trite concept: a global problem can only be solved with a global answer . Otherwise, it would be like hiding the classic dust under the carpet, out the border, over the ocean, on the other side of...

Stories and News No. 1226 Today, just six days from Biden's inauguration, US President Donald Trump will be subjected to impeachment for the second time during his term, following as many bans by the main social networks he has used for his personal interest so far. However, think about what effect it would have had on the whole world if social networks had decided, with the same unanimity of these days, to ban the profile of the most powerful man in the world, guilty of spreading hate and division since his very first post. I am not saying really the first, but after hundred racist or sexist claims, hurting the dignity of the weakest and their human rights, especially the most vulnerable people, on the man's seat that should be the most responsible on the planet in every gesture, let alone in words. Well, perhaps our world today would be different, because four years ago we would have woken up in the morning connected to a society able at its most influential levels to see...

Stories and News No. 1193   History is teaching us. Short stories equally, but never as much as fairy tales. Let's imagine, then. Let's imagine that Coronavirus has the boldness to infect also the vast realm of fantasy, proving to be just as fair as in the real world, making no distinction between tales, good and bad characters, undoubted protagonists and supporting actors. Consequently, let's say that the notorious Covid 19 also spreads in the Little Red Riding Hood forest. Well, I'm sure that mom would think twice about sending the little girl to bring sweets and medicine to her grandmother. Although she has certainly not worried in the past, given the presence of a ferocious and hungry wolf hidden in the bush. But I want to think positive. I always try to do it, and then we finally see the daddy in the picture. Since even in fairy tales the king's ordinance was needed to force him to stay at home. Either way, this isn't the time for controversy, r...

Stories and News No. 1185   Once upon a time the world. The one as we saw it as children, when everything we look at with our tiny eyes was already infinite, let alone what we still ignored and fantasized about. Then things changed. They say it's the age that changes us. I believe other people do, more than time. The mechanical turn of the hands has never affected our history. The human beings that flow by us unexpectedly, at times illogical and often violent, but sometimes capable of incalculable tenderness, are the ones to influence our future, second by second. One of the most decisive aspects regarding choices and thoughts, the feelings on which to focus the heart and which emotions to keep away from the intellect, it’s the screen through which we observe the world. It is not always the same and probably that’s right. Every look, in each chapter of our personal story, needs the appropriate filter. The metaphorical glasses to look at the best, here and now, are chos...

Stories and News No. 1184   Once we called it the law of large numbers . Today, it is the slavery of exaggerations . It is a consequence, after all. One of the most uncomfortable contraindications of the unbridled rush to approximation of our lies. Because many of us live on lies, today. Often venial, sometimes more serious, but that’s Internet, we’re on a social media, then I could delete, right? Indeed, that’s something better: I may write another one! And so on. Moved by the illusion of really going away. And yet, at the dawn of the new year, I still like to see it as a story. The fable of small numbers, of course. Which hardly get the front page of the news and it is understandable. There are many examples: to make noise we need to be many, to be truly successful, a prize is not enough, but a lot, and to attract the gaze of the average reader you need at least thousands of pixels, otherwise he doesn’t even believe the truth. Give me the biggest number you have...

Stories and News No. 1178   The 39 people found dead on a truck in England on Wednesday, whose origin was unknown, were Chinese. Yes, now we know they are Chinese. Thirty-nine. Thirty-nine is a news, because numbers matter. The numbers are facts and no one can discuss or manipulate them. But it depends, it is obvious and, every now and then, it must be remembered. First of all, thirty-nine football players. All champions, all outstanding athletes. It is the ranking of the best ones. Indeed, no, it is the whole favorite team, with all the new arrivals, especially the last one, the future star, who will take the place of the old captain in the dreams of the fans. On the other hand, when you are thirty-nine years old you can't expect to run from door to door without blinking, that's it. Next, the thirty-nine girlfriends of the stars on the field. The inevitable beauties that sparkle in the stadium’s chairs or that suddenly appear among the Instagram profiles of th...

Stories and News No. 1177   At home, on this planet, somewhere. A man and his son meet again for dinner in the kitchen after their respective paths during the day, both fueled by an unshakable faith in the belief that however the day goes, at the end of the journey one will be there for the other. Because that, forever, it is exactly what Hanna, wife and mother left behind, would have wished for, on the umpteenth travel towards the promised survival, even before the land. Yohaness is ten years old and his eyes, of size and depth nourished by a burning desire for lightness, confirm that. At the same time, however, the thick wrinkles that sometimes ruffle the forehead sound out of time with the necessary joviality on the face. It is a real pity, but that is the price that is paid by those forced to experience the roughness of life ahead their natural trip. On the other hand, you can shell out this unfair toll in far worse ways. "What’s up?" Ephrem asks his son. ...

Stories and News No. 1172   This is what happens today, in particular. This is also what has been happening for some time, along the border between what is beautiful within the word ‘humanity’ and the mad as the dull contradiction of the latter. It is a narrow line that oppresses the heart and soul as well as the intellect. It is a promised land and at the same time a prison in which we all deceive ourselves of living as the elected ones, as if the handcuffs that bind the neighbor, even just a breath away from us, do not hold our wrists too. Well, in detail, inside a station in Foggia, Italy, some people were fined for having offered, without the authenticated train ticket, warm milk and precious blankets to some homelesses. € 16.67 , can you understand? This is the price of guilt, in the place where some go, others arrive. This is the defect of a voluntary act, blamable of solidarity. This is the measure with which the current legislation takes its distance from...

Stories and News No. 1170   This story comes from an afternoon of few months ago. I was late and I was in a hurry. When that happens I tend to bend my head down, on the sidewalk, prompted to do so by the fear of stumbling or, at worst, falling. I never liked hurry and, since I can remember, I try to move from home in time, so that I can enjoy the beauty of every journey. Read also that as the many gifts that await us along the travel between the departure and the arrival. Well, that day, I began to notice some book pages on the ground. They were scattered one after the other, some I noticed under a parked car and others ended up in a bush. I took a handful of seconds to look at one up close. I crouched and saw that the paper was yellowed, then aged. I didn't know the title of the novel, but it's not important here. That is, it is immensely, but to me, I keep it for myself, I hope you don't mind. On the contrary, I would like to share with you where the thoug...

Stories and News No. 1166   Once upon a time a school. To be precise, when I say school , I mean the building, but also inside. At least in this short story the students and their precious teachers were one with the foundations, the supporting structure, the windows and the ceiling, as well as the walls. Walls which – it should always be remarked – are not only allowed to divide, but also to support and protect the weakest ones, not just the opposite. Well, the previous night someone left testimony of his thought, or delirium, on the walls next to the entrance gate. Italians first , this is the writing that children and parents saw the next morning. It would have been impossible not to see it, as it was very large. Some of the adults commented briefly on that, some complained about the usual carelessness by the education ministry, but most tried to ignore the aggressive message. It was certainly not a new phrase in their eyes and their ears; and it's well known. When...

Stories and News No. 1163   Let's say I'm a person like many others. Many more than the ones counted inside the storytelling that pleases and, above all, has got the task of being liked. Hence, don’t focus on someone in particular, but take these words as the heartfelt message that could come out from a complex and ever more rich variety of humans, distinguished by their heterogeneity. Let’s imagine, in this regard, that I’m hurriedly considered a different creature or, superficially, part of a minority. Equally guilty seen as negligible value and absentmindedly moved towards the perennial role of subordinate appearance. I could therefore be, trivially, a desperate immigrant or perhaps simply a clandestine, a repeatedly maltreated woman or an individual with an unfairly criminalized sexuality, an abused child in the silence of a condominium or a forgotten elder, but those in need and therefore uncomfortable, and others. Yet today, I am a happy person and at the sam...

Stories and News No. 1161   Antonio Tajani , one of our fellow citizen who currently holds the role of president of the European Parliament, has recently spoke about Mussolini , arousing strong criticism also internationally, with a classic refrain typical of the more nostalgic far-right: the man has also done good things (bridges, roads, and so on). This suggests me a story about Italy... Once upon a time there was an old country. I’m saying very old. Indeed, a lot more. I mean extraordinarily so. The exceptionally old country had got this particular nature from its inhabitants. By that, I should have started the story by reciting: once upon a time there was an old country inhabited by old people. However, the qualifying adjective would have been redundant, and so I started from the place to point out those who live there, that's all. I am referring to the persons who are old, very old, so old that they cannot in any way separate themselves from the past, howeve...

Stories and News No. 1159   Indulge me. Yes please. Treat me as one of those frail and vulnerable people, who more or less consciously require condescension from others. On the other hand, the utopian hope of both, storyteller or simply creature with the a seriously compromised sense of reality, is the same: that the journey, or its conclusion, is worth of your time, if not the ticket’s price. The starting point from which the following dream was born is a fact, like the true news where I usually draw inspiration writing a story, and it precisely concerns the possible diffusion of the latter as a literary work. In this regard, as many know, sooner or later the author's right to his own creation will end. From that moment, the story, the words that compose it, the following moral and the characters which contribute to it, become instantly public. Suddenly, everything belongs to everyone. Insist to indulge me, then. Even if at this point you knew where I’m willing...

Stories and News No. 1158    On February 18, 2019 George Mendonsa , or Mendonça, died . He was ninety-five years old and became famous for a photo, but above all for a kiss. A stolen one, literally. According to the chronicles of the time, on August 14, 1945 George was in New York and he was watching a movie at the well-known Radio City Music Hall. He was with Rita, the woman who would later become his wife, when some people entered the hall and began shouting words that everyone in the world was waiting with anxiety and hope. The war is over. A marvelous phrase, a forbidden dream for entire generations struck by a bitter destiny and whispered to the utmost almost every day by those who are obliged by History to consider peace only a coveted horizon, instead of the natural condition. Besides there are conflicts and battles of all kinds, in this world, whose soundtrack is not necessarily composed of mortar shots and machine guns’ bursts. Anyway, George ran out wit...

Stories and News No. 1080 It seems that Donald Trump has agreed to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un before May. The news comes from a South Korean official after a meeting in the White House. It would be the first time that a current president of the United States will meet the leader of North Korea. Once upon a time there was a populist and a dictator . The populist said: “Listen, you won’t believe it, but I am the leader of my country.” “Really?” Said the dictator. “Me too!” “Yes, all right, but you can’t imagine how I became head of the nation.” “Tell me”, replied the dictator, “but hurry up, I have to go and get other laws done to increase my power.” “Me too!” The populist exclaimed. “Anyway, I was talking about how I became the leader. So, first, I asked myself: who are my potential voters?” “I call them subjects .” “Who?” “The citizens, I called them subjects of my dominion.” “Me too! But not on live microphones, obviously. What matters most, however, is that ...