Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
US history, segregation and thinking beyond races
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/7831637.stm
This is a video I wanted to embed in this post but I can’t. Anyway I think this is a great story by the BBC. It shows how race relations have changed in the US, or so it seems. Moreover this video reports the words of one of the students of Arkansas segregated high school escorted by the US Army into the building.
He says that if the US wants to move on and progress, it should think beyond races. For now it’s too early, but maybe it will be the case in the near future.
A change is gonna come … in the US
No to US missile defence – saturday 31 January in London
No to US missile defence
I’ve got this message in my email recently. I think it’s a good cause and that it deserves some form of support. I believe this post is this kind of support.
What follows is the message I received.
The start of my 2009
2009 starts with an american flavour for me.
With my friends we had the visit of Patrick. He’s american. One of those american you rarely knew of in the news. First of all he doesn’t have an astonishing american accent when he speaks. Maybe it’s because his mom is from Brazil. What makes Patrick quite unique to me, is the fact that he is in Italy to walk. He has walked from the north of Italy, actually from Swiss Alpes to Reggio Calabria and Sicily. Now he’s heading himself towards Trapani trying to reach the southern tip of Italy. You can follow his travel on his blog
I want to share this video Pat showed me and my friends during this new year’s celebrations
Still I rise
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Diggin’ in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
as seen on this website via StumbleUpon
Just to remember an historic speech
Two of my favourites
“Violence as a way of achieving racial justice is both impractical and immoral.
It is impractical because it is a descending spiral ending in destruction for all. The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everybody blind.
It is immoral because it seeks to humiliate the opponent rather than to convert.
Violence is immoral because it thrives on hatred rather than love. It destroys community and makes brotherhood impossible.
It leaves society in monologue rather than dialogue.
Violence ends by defeating itself. It creates bitterness in the survivors and brutality in the destroyers”.
by Martin Luther King jr (1968)
“I think there are plenty of good people in America, but there are also plenty of bad people in America and the bad ones are the ones who seem to have all the power and be in the positions to block every thing that you and I need.
Because this is the situation, you and I have to preserve the right to do what is necessary to bring and end to that situation, and it doesn’t mean that I advocate violence, but at the same time, I am not against using violence in self-defense. I don’t even call it violence when it’s self-defense, I call it intelligence”.
by Malcolm X
Even in southern Italy there’s some culture activity
Dervisci players
On my Italian weblog www.piervi.com I published today a press release about an event in Palermo that will take place tomorrow and Sunday 26 October. This is to stress that many people in the world think that Italy ends in Naples. But this is not true. South Italy is not just Mafia and spaghetti. We’ve got so much more. Here you have a few pics of the “Sufi music in Palermo”.
Stephane Gallet
Stephane Gallet
Finally my blog online
Ok this is my first blog post. After upgrading and installing wordpress on my Italian www.piervi.com website managed of course by WordPress, I can start now with this English version too.
I’ll soon publish my conversation with Matt that I had a while ago in 2007, so stay tuned.
