There is a debate now going on in Italy: was Tiziano Terzani a secular saint, a Guru, or even “the lay Pope?” Terzani (see Wikipedia and The Guardian), before wearing a long white beard and robe and living in an Indian ashram, was a former war correspondent and an expert on China and Japan—he wrote for Der Spiegel, Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica—who covered wars from Vietnam to Afghanistan.
Terzani’s last book, La Fine è Il Mio Inizio (The End is My Beginning), has become this summer’s bestseller in Italy. The title speaks for itself: imbued with oriental mysticism raised to the level of keys to life, and in spite of any institutionalised forms of religion, the book is about the harmony of opposites, communion with nature, and other issues of Indian philosophy and spirituality. Is it—as argued by its mostvehement detractors—“a confused mixture of Oriental philosophy, Marxism and Christianity?” Are Terzani’s Catholic opponents right when they accuse him of “leading people astray?” Be that as it may, but Terzani’s website has been indundated with admiring e-mails …
After the winning match against Germany of our national team at the Tuesday's semi-final of the Worldcup Soccer 2006 tournament, it seems that it is time for the Brits to update some of their clichés on Italy and Italians:
England may still love long balls and the commentators mention the war, but the Italians no longer play catenaccio. What kind of crazy tournament is this?
Not only more civilised, but more conducive to perfection. Take Italian footballers: they've proved themselves rather a superior breed to the English lot, this World Cup. Totti, Toni, et al have showed that the Italian way produces muscles, nerve and hair as well-conditioned as Ginola's.
[…] Italians are healthier. An Italian man can expect to stay healthy 10 years longer than his British counterpart, according to a Leicester University study just published. The difference between an Italian woman and a British one is 14 years of health.
So how can the British become more like the Italians?
Two Italian peacekeepers were killed and four wounded by a roadside bomb near the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday. [...] The blast hit a two-vehicle Italian convoy about 20 km (12 miles) south of Kabul, on the main road to Logar province. The wounded were evacuated by helicopter. [...] Italy handed over command of the force to Britain on Thursday. A Taliban spokesman, Mohammad Hanif, said by telephone from an undisclosed location that Taliban suicide bombers would increase attacks on British troops in the southern Helmand province, and would "turn the ground red" with their blood. [Read the rest]
Growing up, Italian teenagers learn the tale of Giotto and the fly. As a young apprentice in 13th century Florence, the aspiring painter sketched a fly on the nose of a portrait his master-teacher Cimabue was finishing. So lifelike was the insect that when the elder painter returned to the studio, he repeatedly tried to swat it off the canvas. Realizing he'd been fooled by the bravura talent of his pupil, Cimabue told him: "You have surpassed your teacher." Thus encouraged by his master, Giotto went on to revolutionize Western painting, and posterity regards him as the man who launched the Italian Renaissance.
Fast-forward to Italy 2006, and the image of the precocious apprentice has been replaced by a humbler figure: the underemployed 30-something despondent about the present, let alone the future.
[…]
Developing the potential of a Giotto requires masters with the wisdom and magnanimity of Cimabue. Even if Italy's under-40s were to push harder for responsible roles, Italy's old guard — in virtually every field, from academia to entertainment — shows few signs of ceding space to them.
[…]
Frida Giannini, 33, has taken over as creative chief [at Gucci, the luxury-goods maker]. The Rome native says Italy must find new ways to do what it has always done best: brilliant design allied to fine workmanship. "You grow up in a place like Rome, every other meter there is a work of art, some kind of treasure. It's not the same to see it in a postcard," she says. "It's in our dna." But that native aesthetic sense needs an extra dose of ingenuity to add value in today's competitive environment. "Quality must be wedded to creativity," Giannini says. "If you want to give luster to whatever you produce, you must focus your resources on the young. You have to always be in search of what's new, what's next."
[…]
Italy is now on course to become quite literally the oldest of countries. Beset by economic and social stagnation that makes it among the most ossified slices of Old Europe, it is stuck with a stubbornly low birth-rate that means Italians are not even replacing themselves. In a more fundamental way, the nation has not figured out how to make use of the energy and ingenuity of its young. Faced with bleak job prospects and a lack of young leaders to look to, Italians in their 20s and 30s risk falling into a nationwide generational rut. Many are afflicted with a pervading sense of hopelessness and malaise that contrasts with the youth-driven vigor boosting states like Sweden or Slovenia.
[…]
Though absent from the candidates' slogans, Italy's need to rejuvenate itself ought to be the nation's No. 1 priority. Better educated and more connected with the outside world, young Italians are ready to step into full-fledged adulthood and reshape their country's future. But far too few have had the chance.
The life and martyrdom of Fr. Andrea Santoro, a Roman priest on mission in Turkey, by Sandro Magister, and a testimony—previously published by Asia News—of an Italian volunteer who knew him well.
[…] I saw him two months ago in Iskenderun, at the see of the apostolic vicariate of Anatolia. It was our monthly retreat and we talked about the cross. He told us: “Often I ask myself: What am I doing here? And the words of John the Baptist would come to mind. ‘And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us’. I live among these people so that Jesus can live among them through me. In the Middle East, Satan continues to destroy, remembering and loyal to the past. As it was at the time of Jesus, silence, humility, the simple life, acts of faith, miracles of charity, clear and defenceless witness, and the conscious offering of one’s life can rehabilitate the Middle East.”
After a long pause, he took off his glasses letting them hang around his neck and spoke again, calmly, as if talking to himself: “I am convinced that in the end there are no two ways, only one way that leads to light through darkness, to life through the bitterness of death. Only by offering one’s flesh is salvation possible. The evil that stalks the world must be borne and pain must be shared till the end in one’s own flesh as Jesus did.” Not one word more, not one less.
After he spoke silence fell on the room. Then he looked at his watch and got up quickly, apologised, picked up his small suitcase and left the room almost running. He didn’t want to miss the plane that would take him back to his Trabzon.
There he was kneeling yesterday, praying in his church. There a bullet pierced his heart.
indica un posto dove si cerca un orientamento, ma il luogo dove lo si può trovare—l'orientamento—non è questo. Ciascuno è (dovrebbe essere) la rosa dei venti di se stesso.
La data di nascita
di questo blog è il 22 ottobre 2003, ma una versione precedente di Wind Rose Hotel è stata ospitata per qualche mese dal Cannocchiale. Per leggere i post scritti in quel periodo bisogna cliccare qui.
Il Titolare: chi è
E' in circolazione un profilo che la dice lunga su di lui. E' in inglese, perché il blog che lo ha gentilmente sollecitato e lo ospita è il britannico normblog, che poi è anche il suo preferito tra quelli internazionali. Ve lo raccomando—il blog, intendo, c'è un limite all'immodestia ...
P.S.: Wind Rose Hotel è stato (troppo) generosamente
recensito da Francesco Nardi per l'Agenzia Giornalistica Europa.
The Liberty Bell
«Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof Lev. XXV, X
By Order of the Assembly of the Province of Pensylvania for the State House in Philada»
1752
«If I had a bell
I'd ring it in the morning
I'd ring it in the evening ... all over this land,
I'd ring out danger
I'd ring out a warning
I'd ring out love between all of my brothers and my sisters
All over this land.
...
It's a bell of freedom» Lee Hays and Pete Seeger
["If I Had a Hammer"]
"Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus
Hath told you Caesar was ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Caesar answer'd it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest--
For Brutus is an honourable man;
So are they all, all honourable men--
Come I to speak in Caesar's funeral.
He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome
Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill:
Did this in Caesar seem ambitious?
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept:
Ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal
I thrice presented him a kingly crown,
Which he did thrice refuse: was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says he was ambitious;
And, sure, he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then, to mourn for him?
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar,
And I must pause till it come back to me. (...)"
William Shakespeare
«Julius Caesar»
Act 3, Scene 2
— Questo blog non ha alcuna responsabilità per quanto riguarda i siti ai quali è possibile accedere tramite i collegamenti posti all'interno del sito stesso, forniti come semplice servizio agli utenti della rete. Il fatto che il blog fornisca questi collegamenti non implica l'approvazione dei siti stessi e dei links in essi contenuti, sulla cui qualità, contenuti e grafica è declinata ogni responsabilità.
— Questo blog non rappresenta una testata giornalistica con cadenza periodica, né è da considerarsi un mezzo di informazione o un prodotto editoriale ai sensi della legge n. 62 del 7.03.2001.
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domenica, 13 agosto 2006
There is a debate now going on in Italy: 
posted by RobP at 23:53
| * Notice: this blog has moved to a new location: 
After 
Two Italian peacekeepers were killed and four wounded by a roadside bomb near the Afghan capital Kabul on Friday. [...] The blast hit a two-vehicle Italian convoy about 20 km (12 miles) south of Kabul, on the main road to Logar province. The wounded were evacuated by helicopter. [...] Italy handed over command of the force to Britain on Thursday. A Taliban spokesman, Mohammad Hanif, said by telephone from an undisclosed location that Taliban suicide bombers would increase attacks on British troops in the southern Helmand province, and would "turn the ground red" with their blood. [
The life and martyrdom of Fr. Andrea Santoro, a Roman priest on mission in Turkey, by Sandro Magister, and 
Questo blog non ha alcuna responsabilità per quanto riguarda i siti ai quali è possibile accedere tramite i collegamenti posti all'interno del sito stesso, forniti come semplice servizio agli utenti della rete. Il fatto che il blog fornisca questi collegamenti non implica l'approvazione dei siti stessi e dei links in essi contenuti, sulla cui qualità, contenuti e grafica è declinata ogni responsabilità. 
