tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35329622007-10-14T14:32:03.159+02:00Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-1093792485207750322004-08-29T17:13:00.000+02:002004-08-29T17:14:45.206+02:00

Boingboing already posted a partial translation into English of this, but the Italian daily La Repubblica has a larger extract, and I thought I owed it to Enzo Baldoni to translate it, since that was what we both did. Translators are people who build bridges, so what better homage than translating this cheerful and lucid acceptance of death without bitterness. “Of course, I’m certainly

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-1091305497717712572004-07-31T22:23:00.000+02:002004-07-31T22:32:44.696+02:00

In the summer of 2003 I went to Clarion West. It was the best time of my life. In the winter of 2003 I had a severe depressive episode and went very close to taking my own life. In the spring of 2004 I began writing again. My bout of depression, for several reasons, was by far the most serious I’ve heard about - going into major depression is not usual after Clarion - but my predicament was

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-1085340336498653782004-05-23T21:21:00.000+02:002004-05-23T21:25:36.500+02:00

1. Unshakable beliefs The thing about America and torture and the whole bloody mess that Iraq has become, in Europe, is that nobody is surprised. A few die-hard americanophiles are hurt, but in general, the revelation that Americans have been torturing people out of need or pleasure isn't very shocking news to Europeans. Actually, what I have seen discussed with disquieting frequency on

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-1084452690823843982004-05-13T14:48:00.000+02:002004-05-13T14:51:30.823+02:00

One thing you can't say about Italians is that they lack style. This is the latest addition to the Highway Police car pool. Apparently Lamborghini made a present of the car to the police. One is none the less inclined to think of the state of research funding in Italy, but hey, we got style.

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-1084435093520466752004-05-13T09:45:00.000+02:002004-05-13T09:58:13.520+02:00

I was reading the NYT and found this article which struck me for several reasons. The first is the cute way it lists the traditional means of torture, like pushing somebody's head under water and stopping short of drowning him, and then calls it "stopping short of torture". It does say that "defenders of the tecniques" are saying that, but it consistently uses "tecniques" throughout the article.

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-1084306836563194692004-05-11T22:20:00.000+02:002004-05-11T22:20:36.563+02:00

I have finally - to the general relief of my two remaining readers no doubt - decided to change my template. I am afraid that to switch on the new Blogger service that lets me have comments and warns me via email when they come, I had to lose my old comments. That's bad, I know. But let's try to be forward thinking. Also, now I'll know when people comment on my blog.

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-1084303995093289292004-05-11T21:32:00.000+02:002004-05-11T21:33:15.093+02:00

While I work I keep checking the news. Yesterday La Repubblica's website was "Amnesty [International] accuses: Blair knew". Oh-ho. Amnesty makes the headlines. That's new. That's new because in the few years I've been a member I've read press release after press release with facts and figures - some of them relating to Western countries - that completely overshadowed the things we've all

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-1083790306339838382004-05-05T22:51:00.000+02:002004-05-12T09:39:53.863+02:00

Kathryn Cramer has a post about heroes: people who refused to torture or denounded or stopped torture once they knew about it. Which brought to my mind sections of Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People, by John Conroy, a book I wish everybody would read, especially these days. I googled a bit and found this piece by Conroy himself. It seems to incorporate a lot of the best material from the book.

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-1083619371084584692004-05-03T23:22:00.000+02:002004-05-11T21:53:45.833+02:00

Mostly, I don't know what to say. I think I said it all about a year ago, when I wrote my long post about torture. Back then, I was moved to outrage. I am not outraged now. I was in a state of continuos outrage all the time, because the news where there for people willing to listen to them. Do I believe it's just a few bad apples? LOL. A few bad apples don't take photos with great big

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-1082730361251349772004-04-23T16:25:00.000+02:002004-05-11T21:54:57.316+02:00

Last March, on the first day of spring, two things happened, one good and one bad. I got a phone call from Neile Graham, Clarion West administrator, to tell me that I was being invited to Clarion West 2003, and the war started. I have to admit that I became a coward. I needed a visa for the US to be able to attend Clarion, and I knew there was no way I could talk about the war and not say

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-911904892003-03-22T20:34:00.000+01:002004-05-11T22:10:02.750+02:00

I got some extremely good news on Tuesday. I had one day to enjoy and then... well, then. Wednesday night I slept with the TV on, because I was seized by anxiety whenever I tried switching it off. And so, even without waking up fully, I knew when it happened. The next day I went around with a strange feeling of relief. It was happened: it was out of our hands. Then my ingrained optimism

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-908858982003-03-18T01:01:00.000+01:002004-05-11T22:11:22.940+02:00

One catch (out of, let's fondly hope, many out there): Mark A.R. Kleiman says excellently a lot of the things I've tried to say confusingly and in fear of being deluged by outrage: He rather callously adds, "It's a good bet that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed has felt some pain. And if that's the best chance of making him talk, it's OK by me." No doubt it is. The human capacity for courage in

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-908114012003-03-16T19:23:00.001+01:002004-05-11T22:14:43.336+02:00

I have never, not even indirectly, met with torture. Not only I was born in a time and place, and to a class, where the danger to meet it was minimal. I have also, despite several years as an active member of Amnesty International, never met anybody who has faced it, something for which I am somewhat grateful, because I am not sure I would have been able to look at them and see them, as they

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-904713712003-03-10T20:09:00.000+01:002004-05-11T22:15:20.420+02:00

I don't read too many blogs because I'm afraid of stumbling on something so sick and so evil that it will physically hurt me. But when I do stumble upon it, I have to point it out. This is it. This is as evil and as sick as you can be: "I don't approve of ever torturing American citizens, who are of course protected by the Constitution. But so long as we're at war, I think there are limited

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-892077882003-02-17T00:37:00.000+01:002004-05-11T22:15:57.636+02:00

People have sort of taken a liking to demonstrating. This is the second time three million people hit Rome. I particularly like Repubblica's photos, and in particular I love this.

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-891954452003-02-16T19:50:00.000+01:002004-05-11T22:16:32.446+02:00

They appeared slowly, tiptoeing into the urban landscape in days of luminous cold, one by one. One of the first ones was this. I don't remember when it was that I saw it first. Then two others blossomed together in my own street, tied to the omnipresent railings. I stopped and looked at them in something like recognition. Then it was its turn. From that day on I walked with my nose in the air,

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-851588822002-11-27T14:00:00.000+01:002002-11-29T00:02:49.000+01:00

Oh yes, Bjorn Lomborg. Bertramonline, which I've just added to my blogroll and not out of reciprocity either, has some things to report on Bjorn Lomborg, whose book The Skeptical Enviromentalist had me all enthusiastic in the short space of time that went between giving it a look and reading the Scientific American review. I was taken in by this guy? I'm embarrassed. And not a little

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-850447042002-11-25T09:01:00.000+01:002002-11-25T09:01:27.280+01:00

Mount Etna I have been on the Etna several times, and once I went up to the summit too, but even if it is always more or less active, my visit have maddeningly always coincided with particularly quiet periods. It isn't such a quiet period now, and yesterday it seemed like Rifugio Sapienza, where all my visits had started, and even the cable car to the upslopes, would have to go. The lava

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-848130182002-11-20T14:27:00.000+01:002002-11-20T14:27:13.330+01:00

Impunity for the powerful The Guardian has an impeccable article on Androtti's conviction. Besides being informative and correct (though I wonder if people can follow the dark convolutions of Italian history through its most terrible turns) it ends with the ominous note everybody has been pointing out to me these last few days: Paradoxically, the fate of a man who always emphasised his

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-847062922002-11-18T15:25:00.000+01:002002-11-18T15:29:30.000+01:00

"To think badly is sinful... ... but you're often right" is probably the most famous of the celebrated witty utterances of Giulio Andreotti, sith times Prime Minister of the Italian Republic, affectionately known by friends and enemies together as "The Devil", sentenced yesterday to 24 years for commissioning a murder. I was driving towards a cinema yesterday (to see the absolutely crappy

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-847059052002-11-18T15:09:00.000+01:002002-11-29T00:02:17.000+01:00

They came and got them The night before last, twenty people have been woken up by police and arrested. They were all involved in the "new-global" movement. One of them was Francesco Caruso, leader of the movement in Southern Italy, and such a far-out radical that other fringes of the movements left writings on the walls of Naples that said "Al prossimo G8 Caruso poliziotto", "At the next G8,

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-846221752002-11-16T16:03:00.000+01:002002-11-16T16:03:06.920+01:00

Some were communists This is by Giorgio Gaber, Italian singer, author, performer and, as this makes abundantly clear, ex-Communist. A lot of this is very Italian but I left it in because, well, because never mind if you don't get it. It explains a lot about Italy, really, including what Italians mean by "Communism". I do hope it falls under fair use. It's basically satire. I guess. Emilia

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-846190082002-11-16T13:36:00.000+01:002002-11-16T13:36:42.716+01:00

The good American I really wanted to write about something else today, and I may yet do, but this is something that I have to point people at - even if after such a long hiatus (hangs head in shame) I don't know who may notice at all. When I'm about to give up the USA and everybody in it - and last elections were such an occasion - reasoning that the people I trust and admire there are such

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-820402862002-09-24T13:57:00.000+02:002002-09-24T13:57:12.843+02:00

We're not in it for the oil, oh no. Peter Maas's blog points to an article that clarifies what's in store for the disruptive Europeans that dare oppose the Imperial orders: As The Washington Post helpfully explains, countries that support the invasion will find their oil companies rewarded with reconstruction and exploration contracts. Governments that drag their heels or oppose the U.S.

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3532962.post-820124832002-09-23T23:46:00.000+02:002002-09-23T23:48:37.000+02:00

Socialism And while I'm on the subject of Usenet, the huge advantage it has is that somebody will say the things you know you think and spare you the effort of articulating them, and in some cases of, er, researching them too. I've long wanted to say something about Socialism, and lo and behold a thread sprang up on rasff about it, and these posts, uh, had bouncing me up and down on the chair.

Annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16667998835070250216noreply@blogger.com