Sunday 29 January 2012

Ski lessons in Aosta

Young European officials having interesting conversations with their ski instructors while learning to make turns.

Stereotypes
Ski instructor: Where are you from?
Poland.
Ski instructor: Did you come here to work?
...

An excellent example
Ski instructor: Tell me, what's your job?
We enforce competition law.
Ski instructor: ... for example?
You know, we investigate companies fixing prices together instead of competing.
Ski instructor: Aha! Like our two ski schools charging you the same price

More about competition
Ski instructor: May I ask you something a bit embarrassing?
...
Ski instructor: You do competition. Could you inspect the competing ski school? They are cheating on taxes

Tuesday 10 January 2012

Abul... quoi?

On a fast road, in the middle of a park, a stone's throw from some posh clubs, stands a little theatre. Low profile, old style, a bit uncared: Belgian style for coolness.

Invasion! is on as of today, telling the story - better, the stories - of Abulkasem.

Abulkasem is a character in a play, is a terrorist from the Middle East, is a word in youngsters' slang (a noun, a verb or even an adverb), is an illegal immigrant in Sweden.

It is a tale of identity and prejudice. A tale of points of view and of manipulation. And a tale of language and misunderstanding: we have expectations, we make assumptions, we think we get the point but maybe we are not even listening really. Then every person or every word can be Abulkasem, it won't matter.

Hey you, reading this, why do you abulkasem me like that?

Tuesday 3 January 2012

Soundtrack

Back one year ago, in January, Martin Solveig's Hello was played endlessly on the slopes of Bardonecchia, soundtrack to abundant clumsiness and falls on the snow.

When February came, Skin's You saved me popped up quite a few times on the radio and in my email box.

In March I was dancing with the Black Eyed Peas for my birthday, so in April well-deserved rest and peace came with the beautiful soothing voice of Patrizia Laquidara.

May was a though month, from many sides. Music seemed to stop healing, me just longing for the summer to arrive and the Italian radio streaming from my computer Arriverà.

And summer finally came. With summer came rebirth of energy and hope. June was brightened by little trips, sun and a bit of rock. July was simply great: my New York moment of happiness and fulfillment. August misled me and served me a mix of bright sunshine and a little bitterness. As always, it was a matter of waves and winds.

In September I tried to change direction and Noel Gallagher accompanied me, while in October I had to get tougher on my resolutions and face the emptiness of words and promises.

Despite everything, November brought me in Africa once again, where the sun was hot again, animals were wild, villages were poor but dreaming was not only possible, it was real. Until December was back and, as we know, Thank God it's Christmas.