Exactly 6 years today (17th November 2010)the great artist Fulvio Fo lost his battle to cancer and passed away in Rome.
He was a great man, who I had the privilege of meeting personally and work with during a ‘basic theatre course’ he held in the evenings in my high school in Sardinia.
Known to many as “animale teatrante e scrittore” (theatre animal and writer) he had a long career working in theatre and cinema mainly in Italy but also has some stunts abroad.
Born in Luino (a small place near Varese, in the north of Italy) in 1928 he was noble prize winner Dario Fo’s older brother.
He was a scenographer, theatre director in Turin and Rome and wrote several books too. In 1996 he moved to Sinnai, a village in the mountains just outside Cagliari, in Sardinia.
The following is a direct quote from Fulvio who wrote this a few weeks before he died:
“Quando arriverà il mio momento so che seguirò questa schiava-padrona con animo limpido, consapevole di potermene andare serenamente lasciando il mio riflesso, la mia impronta positiva sorridente di gioia illuminata e rassicurante”(Fulvio Fo).
This is my translation of the original Italian version above, although it does not sound half as poetic written in English:”When my moment will come I know I will follow this slave-master with clear spirit, aware that I will be able to leave serenely leaving my reflection, my positive and smiling mark with joy both illuminating and reassuring.” (Fulvio Fo)
The practical course I did with him in 2008 helped me immensely in winning over my timidness as at the end of it we did a live performance. During rehearsals he kept advising me: ‘speak slowly, make pauses and respect them. The pauses you make are just as important as the words you articulate’. If you think about this it is so true, one just needs to watch a speech from the best orator alive, Barack Obama, to realise the accuracy of Fulvio’s teachings. Pauses makes it sound as if you are stopping to think and give your words an air of importance.
Since that course speaking in public became much easier and the year after, when I got elected ‘representative of the students’ by my fellow school mates, I was able to chair school assemblies with an audience of a few hundred people without succumbing to nerves.
His kindness, good spirit and enthusiasm will always be remembered by those who were lucky enough to get to know him and I know I speak on behalf of everyone in the theatre group who in a short period of time learnt so much from him.
This is an interesting article in Italian that gives an insight into the reality of Sardinian ‘chavs’ and the distinctions of categorisation that exist within this broad field. Stay tuned, I might right something in ‘Cup of Espresso’ on this topic in the coming months!
Everything was normal until 9:30. After that it became everything but normal.
Rumour started spreading that our school mate Leonardo, 1 year bellow me, had an accident on his moped just outside school.
Many ran to the scene leaving their classrooms others like myself stayed behind out of the way.
From that moment onwards the entire school stopped following lessons even the bell stopped ringing to mark the end of the hour.
Two ambulances came, but there was nothing they could do to save him.
It was as if time had stopped.
All of the school was in a collective spirit of shock and sadness.
Perhaps the thing that surprised me the most is that his mp3 kept playing music. Leonardo had left us forever yet his mp3 was still playing songs as if nothing had happened. How can that be possible?
The anniversary of this date is always marked in my old school by creating road safety events and football tournaments in Leo’s memory. To this day a whole series of initiatives take place including a road safety competition. For more info go to the website www.vivosicuro.it
Autumn is in full swing and even on the island you can tell that the seasons are changing. Beyond the fact that some people here tend to wear their winter attire from the beginning of September even if the thermometer shows 30C, there are some characteristics that make this season special.
The touristy season slowly dies away as the number of flights from the airports decrease, the hotels and beaches get less and less crowded except for the few adventurous that keep on going (many of whom tend to be German or Scandinavian).
Above all I guess the most important aspect of Autumn on the island is the many festivals organised in the inland villages that host thousands of guests from all over the island. They are typically organised in accordance to a religious occasion such as a patron saint or catholic festivities such as the day of the dead (called in Sardinian ‘Su Prugadoriu’ translated literally the purgatory) or some in honour of the local produce of the season such as the chestnut festival (in Aritzo).
The second aspect which is characteristic is mushrooms. In the woods all over the island mushrooms grow wildly and they are fairly easy to find even just a 20min drive away from the city centre. Many people sell them on the street and even restaurants feature them as seasonal specials in their menus. Of course if one goes mushroom picking, an obligatory step is to post pictures of the day’s catch on Facebook together with at least 20 hashtags.
The other great thing about autumn on the island are chestnuts that are readily available roasted to perfection sold on the the streets where people pass every evening.Locals start selling them from September all the way to December.
For more information on the festivals search for ‘Autunno in Barbagia‘ if you are confined to travelling by public transport there are also express coaches chartered especially to go from Cagliari to the different villages following the festivals.
Walking around the biggest city in Sardinia, I stumbled across a group of people handing out flyers and maps of the city centre underneath a gazebo which had a massive sign ‘Information Point’. Nothing strange about it, if it wasn’t for the fact that a particular logo and name were etched on the flyers, t-shirts and flags that surround it. I soon find out it was a group of volunteers who had organised it, activists in ‘Popolo delle Liberta’ (translated literally ‘the people of liberty’), the political party led by Silvio Berlusconi which currently has a stronghold on both regional and national government.
No better occasion to ask some questions about the political situation in Italy and their opinions to those who would bare the heat in order to support him.
As not many of them spoke English I spoke to a young guy who was fluent and patiently explained and answered all my questions on Sardinia, Italy and the political situation which I pretended not to understand properly. Whilst I was asking questions others of the group, including the leader of the ‘PDL Youth section for Cagliari’, were wary about the fact I could have been a journalist who could damage their image (see the Youtube video to watch reactions to an interview previously recorded on the same morning by a local newsblog). When I asked them if I could take a picture with them, upload it on my blog and in a newspaper article on Manchester’s student newspaper, however, they sounded more than happy.
PDL run ‘tourist Information Point’ in Piazza Costitzione, Cagliari (25/07/2013)
When I asked about their affiliation with Mr Berlusconi they universally defended him as if he was ‘victim of a plot’. Today (30th of July) Italy’s highest court will pronounce the final verdict on the former prime-minister who recently declared ‘he had faith in the Italian juridical system’ and that if guilty he would go to jail, something which astounded many who were accustomed to hearing him attack the ‘communist judges’ (toghe rosse) and the conspiracy against him.
‘It has all been decided’ says one of his young supporters, ‘we know they have had it in for him for years now and they are going to continue condemning him’. Most people in Italy would agree with his supporters as on the one hand, there are those who believe it has been fixed forBerlusconi to get charged and on the other, those who believe Mr Berlusconi’s revolutionary vow of trust in ‘the juridical system’ is a clear sign of the game being fixed by bigger centres of power.
When I asked if they believed in the need for a younger and more innovative leader, mixed feelings were expressed. ‘Some people would say that’, confessed one, ‘although currently there is nobody with the same amount of charisma and capability as him’. ‘He is very powerful’ another one said ‘he knows Bush, Putin and many other world leaders’. A rather peculiar choice to sustain the ‘Presidente’ (title with which all media and most Italians on either side of the political spectrum still address him today) as he has only recently been under fire for some of the deals he did with Gheddafi and in more recent scandal surrounding the arrest of two political asylum seekers who were handed over to the Kazakh president/dictator.
Corriere della Sera. Page which talks about Berlusconi’s upcoming promotional film (bellow). The top half reports comments on the ‘Alfano situation’ connected to the Kazakh dictator scandal and the way he needed support for his trials
By quoting one of the most obsessive slogans of his supporters ‘People are just jealous of Berlusconi because of his success and the fact that aged 76 he can still have a great sex life with hot girls, wouldn’t you like to be like that when you’re old?’. This brought the topic to my all-time favourite ‘sex, orgies and prostitutes’ and things became even more interesting. Mixed thoughts on the right to have orgies or not was the first hurdle. The lady who had been listening to my conversation (and occasionally suggesting a good come back to my questions) was startled when I defended Berlusconi’s right to have orgies in his house immediately clarifying that there were ‘parties not orgies’. The younger guys were more critical towards the Catholic moral stronghold on the country, and agreed that if he wanted to, nobody should stop him from doing what he wanted in his private life (as one can imagine the ins and outs of the circumstances in which he held the parties were not explored as I feared they would refuse to keep going with the interview). When it came to talking about prostitutes however the lady refused categorically to accept it. ‘Berlusconi did not have prostitutes; they were just having parties’. This is one of the key points in the whole Berlusconi dream. According to his supporters Berlusconi is an experienced 74 year old man, great politician and also a party-goer that would never need to pay for sex as his charisma did it all. The eye-watering story of a young boy who used to sing songs on cruise ships and who thanks to his ability became one of the most powerful men on earth is a great story to tell which enforces his image as a ‘hard worker’. The fact that he jokes and has an active sex life makes him, sadly, even more of a hero.
Speaking to his supporters makes one realise the importance of Silvio Berlusoni within his political party which, for the sake of unity, vow loyalty to the leader although often sharing completely political and moral standpoints. On the other side, the Democratic Party also has the same problem and if it wasn’t for their adversity to Berlusconi they too would be divided. Now with the current coalition government things have changed radically and there is a stronger Catholic current within the parliament which together with the massive media bombardment carried out by the Vatican who, as my Nonna would put it, “carries his own briefcase going on the plane” leads me to believe in the possible re-formation of Democrazia Cristiana, one of the longer lasting ruling parties in Italy which dissolved in 1992 when its connections with free-masons and Mafia were uncovered.
Today is an important day for the history of Italy’s second Republic and whether it’s the effect of the heat wave taking its toll on the 76 year-old, or a rational bet based on bigger centres of power that stretch far beyond the Italian borders, Berlusconi has decided to play all his chips Vegas style whilst he awaits for an answer from the Cassazione on the ‘Mediaset trial’.
Not many people are talking about this in the Italian press, yet anything could happen today. No doubt it will be interesting to see once the men in black have made their decisions both in Rome and Sicily and consequentially in the high-court.
Interview done by local news-blog ‘Cagliari Pad’ a few hours before I reached the stand.
Following a module in Italian constitutional law is probably the most annoying, pointless and frustrating thing one could do. It’s almost as counterproductive as calling your sibling a ‘son of a bitch’.
A. M.
The Italian Republic has an old yet AMAZING constitution yet it is not applied and most likely never will be. Why? Money, Power, greed, EU and US influences, Cardinals, Mafia, bigots and the list goes on.. A bit like the ‘no sex’ rule for Roman Catholic priests..
The concept of ‘Student Tradition’ is something that if one asked me a year ago I would never have imagined it being of such importance let alone a possible topic to write one’s dissertation on!
What are these traditions?
They are a series of rituals, costumes and ‘ways of being’ that have distinguished the student population from the ‘normal people’.
In some old universities you can still feel this atmosphere but it is not easy to get into these closed communities and if you are not a student you can see only the outside of it.
J.K. Rowling in Harry Potter captivated the world with beautiful the castle and student traditions songs and rivalries that pick up a lot of authentic traditions in the university world.
My mission is to try to uncover the past of these traditions and comparing the differences between the various universities and the different countries.
Did you have student traditions in your university? What were they like? What did you enjoy most?
Tutti i cittadini hanno pari dignità sociale e sono eguali davanti alla legge, senza distinzione di sesso, di razza, di lingua, di religione, di opinioni politiche, di condizioni personali e sociali.
È compito della Repubblica rimuovere gli ostacoli di ordine economico e sociale, che, limitando di fatto la libertà e l’eguaglianza dei cittadini, impediscono il pieno sviluppo della persona umana e l’effettiva partecipazione di tutti i lavoratori all’organizzazione politica, economica e sociale del Paese.
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Article 3 (translation done by me)
All citizens have equal rights and dignity in front of the law, without distinction based on sex, race, language, religion, political opinions or personal and social conditions.
It is the Republic’s duty to remove the economical and social barriers, that limit liberty and equality of the citizens and prevents them from fully developing their persona and the effective participation of all workers to the political, economical and social organisation of the country.
This is one of the key principles on which the Italian Constitution is based on and from which all laws and political operations in the country’s legal code. Shame that most Italian laws and actions done by notorious Italian figures do not follow this ‘golden rule’, Can you think of any examples? If you can, leave a comment bellow!!
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Questo é dei punti fondamentali della Costituzione Italiana.
Invito tutti a fare uno più esempi su come questo articolo venga o non venga rispettato.
Potete citare una legge, un politico, un esempio storico, un’azione vostra, di un amico, di un parente..
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