In your life, you will write a book, have a child, and plant a tree, the wise one says.
Look, you just planted a tree!
22.12.08
Notro, its a native species you know
A young woman shovels dirt into a hole with a peeling green paint shovel, while an older woman holds the little tree in place.
15.12.08
Be nice to her dear, she's italian!
- 2008, Bologna, A black woman enters a mail boxes, expedition and graphics office with her baby in a stroller. After they leave, the owner of the office starts grumbling, first quietly then gradually louder: "the negro baby of shit. i have found out that there are two black kids in my son's class at school, soon I am going to go talk to the teacher, it can't continue like this!"
-2000, Rovereto, The city councilman of the National Alliance, Pappolla declares that "the communal administration of our city, which unfortunately doesn't have the power to expel the foreign residents, thus has to make these people live in the worst conditions as possible." And so he asks, in an interrogation to "block each iniciative that would favor the development and diffusion of the muslim culture in our city."
-2000, Trento, The daily " L'Alto Adige" publishes an interview with a self-declared Islam scholar, who affirms that "Islam does not grant any possibility to science, limits strongly artistic, musical amd literary creativity: so the occidental civilization finds itself face to face with the growth of a population that does not supply any critical or intelligent contribution."
-2001, Roma, Silvio Berlusconi states: " We have to be conscious of the superiority of our civilization. A civilization that has given space to the well-being of many populations. A civilization that gurantees the respect to human rights, religion and politics. A respect that certainly doesn't exist in Islamic countries... The occident is destined to occidentalize and the conquer populations. It has done it with the communist world and with a part of the Islamic world. But there's another part of this worls that has remained 1400 in the past."
-2001, Bologna, A bus driver refuses to let a woman with a baby in his bus, closing the doors to her face and adding a pretext that she wears the "islamic veil" (in reality simply a scarf).
-2001, Vigevano, A 14 year old Moroccon gets bullied in front of the school byt two classmates. No one intervenes while he is slapped, punched and insulted heavily: " You are like Bin Laden! You are like him! Go back to your own country, muslim of shit!"
-2002, Bologna, In the San Petronio church of Bologna, four Moroccons and an Italian professor of Art History yet arrested while filming with a videocamera the famous fresco that depicts Muhammed in the Dantesque circle of the worshippers. The five people, initially suspected to be from the Al- Qa'ida and to want to organize an attack to the basilica are later released and exonerated.
-2008, Bologna, A girl in her 20s, talks in a southern Italian dialect on the phone. The mother standing next to her, turns to her son, who is staring harshly at the girl who speaks a language he doesn't understand, and says "Be nice to her dear, she's italian!"
-2000, Rovereto, The city councilman of the National Alliance, Pappolla declares that "the communal administration of our city, which unfortunately doesn't have the power to expel the foreign residents, thus has to make these people live in the worst conditions as possible." And so he asks, in an interrogation to "block each iniciative that would favor the development and diffusion of the muslim culture in our city."
-2000, Trento, The daily " L'Alto Adige" publishes an interview with a self-declared Islam scholar, who affirms that "Islam does not grant any possibility to science, limits strongly artistic, musical amd literary creativity: so the occidental civilization finds itself face to face with the growth of a population that does not supply any critical or intelligent contribution."
-2001, Roma, Silvio Berlusconi states: " We have to be conscious of the superiority of our civilization. A civilization that has given space to the well-being of many populations. A civilization that gurantees the respect to human rights, religion and politics. A respect that certainly doesn't exist in Islamic countries... The occident is destined to occidentalize and the conquer populations. It has done it with the communist world and with a part of the Islamic world. But there's another part of this worls that has remained 1400 in the past."
-2001, Bologna, A bus driver refuses to let a woman with a baby in his bus, closing the doors to her face and adding a pretext that she wears the "islamic veil" (in reality simply a scarf).
-2001, Vigevano, A 14 year old Moroccon gets bullied in front of the school byt two classmates. No one intervenes while he is slapped, punched and insulted heavily: " You are like Bin Laden! You are like him! Go back to your own country, muslim of shit!"
-2002, Bologna, In the San Petronio church of Bologna, four Moroccons and an Italian professor of Art History yet arrested while filming with a videocamera the famous fresco that depicts Muhammed in the Dantesque circle of the worshippers. The five people, initially suspected to be from the Al- Qa'ida and to want to organize an attack to the basilica are later released and exonerated.
-2008, Bologna, A girl in her 20s, talks in a southern Italian dialect on the phone. The mother standing next to her, turns to her son, who is staring harshly at the girl who speaks a language he doesn't understand, and says "Be nice to her dear, she's italian!"
19.11.08
i lost my words today
Today I got into a conversation with a guy on my program about revolutions. He told me that he thought the social movements of the sixties were kind of pointless, and that they didn't do a lot, except for let people run around irresponsibly and catch a lot of STDs.
I said, wait, what? I knew you had very different opinions with me on many subjects, but really? What about, say, that little thing called the Civil Rights Movement? And the fact that a bunch of the anti-war activists were also involved in that movement, and that it was such an important period of social change, which influenced the next half decade of political discourse? Even if you don't agree with their methods, or even all of their ends? But the civil rights movement? Really?
(By the way, he's an aspiring politician)
He said, not really responding to the enormous amount of emphasis I put on the civil rights movement (he's also a great supporter of Obama the almost-president, which magnified my astonishment), "Well, but they didn't really do anything. I mean, all they did was protest the Vietnam War, and I mean, well...I don't like losing."
(me with my mouth gaping open in shock)
He continues. "I mean, I just really hate losing. I don't want us to lose the war in Iraq, I just really hate it when America loses."
And that was when I lost my words.
I said, wait, what? I knew you had very different opinions with me on many subjects, but really? What about, say, that little thing called the Civil Rights Movement? And the fact that a bunch of the anti-war activists were also involved in that movement, and that it was such an important period of social change, which influenced the next half decade of political discourse? Even if you don't agree with their methods, or even all of their ends? But the civil rights movement? Really?
(By the way, he's an aspiring politician)
He said, not really responding to the enormous amount of emphasis I put on the civil rights movement (he's also a great supporter of Obama the almost-president, which magnified my astonishment), "Well, but they didn't really do anything. I mean, all they did was protest the Vietnam War, and I mean, well...I don't like losing."
(me with my mouth gaping open in shock)
He continues. "I mean, I just really hate losing. I don't want us to lose the war in Iraq, I just really hate it when America loses."
And that was when I lost my words.
4.11.08
Its totally cliched, but sometimes that's just how life is.
A young woman sits on her bed in a tiny room in a tiny apartment in Santiago, Chile, happy and disbelieving tears running down her face, listening to her new president speak. For the first time in her life, she really is proud of her country.
She knows that tomorrow she, along with thousands, will have to continue fighting and questioning. Obviously.
But for tonight, she celebrates. YAY OBAMA!!!
3.11.08
Its the night before the United States election
And I am absolutely terrified.
I am terrified that something will happen to Obama. I am terrified that something will happen to the dearest and most accurate electronic voting machines that we use in the "world's greatest democracy". I am terrified because I know that many of these voting machines have already malfunctioned. I am terrified that the Republicans will pull another Florida 2000, or Ohio 2004. I am terrified that despite the incredible amount of hope in this election, my fellow citizens will be absolutely apathetic in the face of another Florida 2000, or Ohio 2004, that nobody will fight, that their voices will be suppressed until the "angry liberals" become a national joke. I am terrified that Joe the Plumber has been conceived of as a good marketing technique.
I am terrified because I still have so little faith in the people of my nation.
I am terrified that somebody could go so low as to steal every single Obama-Biden yard sign in Las Vegas, New Mexico, less than a week before the election. I am terrified that people take Sarah Palin seriously. I am terrified that tomorrow I will wake up and find out that this entire thing has been a dream. I am terrified that the rhetoric Obama has been forced to adopt in his search for national acceptance will continue in his real foreign policy. I am terrified that horrible things will be done to try and prevent Democrats from voting.
But mostly, I am very scared, and very sad, that this election which has almost restored a little bit of hope in my heart and mind that perhaps my country can do something good after all will end up absolutely and forever destroying that hope.
Despite my cynicism, I am an incredibly idealistic person, to be cynical is good protection from the bitter disappointment I feel whenever the world doesn't live up to my expectations of goodness and perfection. This election has showed me that I am capable of more hope than I am inclined to admit. In addition to the terrified heart-clenching that comes whenever I think about tomorrow, I get excited hopeful butterflies in my stomach.
I'm just praying that the butterflies will prevail.
I am terrified that something will happen to Obama. I am terrified that something will happen to the dearest and most accurate electronic voting machines that we use in the "world's greatest democracy". I am terrified because I know that many of these voting machines have already malfunctioned. I am terrified that the Republicans will pull another Florida 2000, or Ohio 2004. I am terrified that despite the incredible amount of hope in this election, my fellow citizens will be absolutely apathetic in the face of another Florida 2000, or Ohio 2004, that nobody will fight, that their voices will be suppressed until the "angry liberals" become a national joke. I am terrified that Joe the Plumber has been conceived of as a good marketing technique.
I am terrified because I still have so little faith in the people of my nation.
I am terrified that somebody could go so low as to steal every single Obama-Biden yard sign in Las Vegas, New Mexico, less than a week before the election. I am terrified that people take Sarah Palin seriously. I am terrified that tomorrow I will wake up and find out that this entire thing has been a dream. I am terrified that the rhetoric Obama has been forced to adopt in his search for national acceptance will continue in his real foreign policy. I am terrified that horrible things will be done to try and prevent Democrats from voting.
But mostly, I am very scared, and very sad, that this election which has almost restored a little bit of hope in my heart and mind that perhaps my country can do something good after all will end up absolutely and forever destroying that hope.
Despite my cynicism, I am an incredibly idealistic person, to be cynical is good protection from the bitter disappointment I feel whenever the world doesn't live up to my expectations of goodness and perfection. This election has showed me that I am capable of more hope than I am inclined to admit. In addition to the terrified heart-clenching that comes whenever I think about tomorrow, I get excited hopeful butterflies in my stomach.
I'm just praying that the butterflies will prevail.
6.10.08
el desastre
Naomi Klein spoke at the University of Chicago a little while ago. Democracy Now! played her speech (headlines come before it...):
Lets think of new ideas to leave lying around, preferably in strategic places.
21.9.08
la destra
A dinner table in northern Italy. Three Americans, a Brasilian, a Turk and an Italian. Everyone strives to communicate in Italian, the Italian seems annoyed with the pace of the others' sentences. An American attempts to tell a joke about Berlusconi, due to the complexity of the sentence, pauses at first, thinks a bit, then says "Do you like Berlusconi?" to the Italian. Unexpectedly, he answers "yes." All the liberal arts college students stop moving in shock. They are so very used to liberal points of view and understanding responses. The joke is never told, and the conversation ends when the Italian says " I don't allow any talk of communists or juventus in my house." It's 2008.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)