Abdallah, l'immigrato che non c'e dei mass media italiani Wara l-artiklu ta' DCG u r-reazzjonijiet varji fil-bloggs, ghazilt xi siltiet interessanti mill-artiklu sabih ta' Giovanni Maria Bellu minn La Repubblica ta' llum.

Wara kollox Thierry Henry u Lilian Thuram mhux suwed ukoll, f'gieh kemm hemm? Min jaf kemm hemm supporters Maltin izommu mal-Gunners li jisplodu bil-ferh kull darba li Thierry jerga' jsib ix-xibka, imbaghad issibhom jobzqu l-velenu x'hin jaraw iswed jixtri flixkun Kinnie minghand tal-kantuniera. U Pele iswed ukoll, by the way. U Miles Davis, u Kofi Annan...Gie li trid tirrakkonta l-ovvju biex jiftiehem, le?

Ma ninsewx ukoll, pero', li sa sentejn ilu konna ghadna qed inbezzghu l-imhuh bil-hairdressers Sqallin (sieheb il-plombier polonais). Nahseb li dak iz-zmien inholqot dijalettika insidjuza, ibbazata fuq il-kuncett "tal-barranin kontra l-Maltin", li m'ghandniex ninjoraw ghal kollox meta nitkellmu fuq id-diskors (hafna aktar feroci) li qed isir illum.

L-artiklu:

Diciamo subito che sono due tipi diversi. Il "signor Rossi" ha una storia lunga e complessa, nella quale s'incontrano convinzioni diffuse, luoghi comuni, leggende ma anche indagini sociologiche, i rapporti annuali del Censis, le ricerche dell'Eurispes. E poi comici e filosofi, scrittori e cinematografari. Nel Dna del signor Rossi possiamo trovare Machiavelli e Totò, Petrolini e Leopardi. Antonio Gramsci e, ahimè, Mario Borghezio. Da tutto questo - e da molto altro ancora - nasce l'italiano medio. Un tizio che non esiste ma di cui tutti hanno una certa idea.E Abdallah? Naturalmente il suo Dna è più semplice. Non perché sia meno antico. Al contrario. Intanto ci sono parecchi signor Rossi che hanno, nel loro Dna non metaforico, qualcosa in comune con Abdallah. Dalle mie parti, in Sardegna, si vede a occhio nudo. E poi c'è quel particolare di cui troppo spesso ci si scorda (strano in un paese religioso come il nostro) quale la comune parentela con Abramo. E potremmo continuare, scomodando i numeri arabi e Averroè. Ma sarebbe inutile. perché gran parte degli elementi che compongono l'immagine di Abdallah sono recenti. Per il semplice fatto che è recente, un "appena ieri" rispetto ai tempi della storia, l'ingresso massiccio degli Abdallah nella società italiana. Così la formazione dell'immagine, deriva quasi totalmente da come Abdallah è descritto dai mezzi di comunicazione di massa...

E' un saggio di Simona Chiarello Ciardo a raccontare come gli italiani immaginano gli immigrati. Emerge appunto che sono ritenuti per la maggior parte clandestini, di religione musulmana e inclini più di noi a commettere reati. Ignorandone sostanzialmente la storia e la cultura, di loro apprezziamo soprattutto la disponibilità a svolgere i lavori più umili...

Insomma, il signor Rossi e Abdallah hanno un diverso status non solo nella realtà ma anche nell'immaginario. Esiste una discriminazione percettiva analoga a quella che il signor Rossi, quando va all'estero, a volte ancora avverte in quelle allusioni ai 'maccaronì e ai 'mandolini', reliquie ormai per fortuna sbiadite del razzismo del quale i suoi nonni sono stati vittime da New York e Lugano, da Düsseldorf a Marcinelle.  ¶ 6:40 AM 0 comments

  Ktieb ghal Mark, Twanny, gybexi... Jismu: Budapest
Awtur: Chico Buarque (Braziljan)

José Costa, a vain ghostwriter and inveterate amateur linguist in his late 30s, is the narrator of this potent cross-cultural romp through Rio de Janeiro and Budapest. As Costa is returning to Brazil from an "anonymous authors' convention" in Istanbul, a bomb threat forces his plane to land in the Hungarian capital, where he is immediately bewitched by the Magyar language, "rumoured to be the only tongue in the world the devil respects."  ¶ 8:12 AM 2 comments

  Cultural Exchanges When you're driving through lava fields, getting up close and personal with a glacier (scary stuff), taking an amphibious craft ride round icebergs and walking UNDER and IN a rainbow (the Skogafoss waterfall was one heck of a spiritual moment), the civilized world of critics, opinion-formers and other movers and shakers (including bloggers) seems a long way away. Healthily at a distance in fact.

So it's fairly astonishing how when I first sat down in this internet cafe next to the Centre Point Tower (one pound all day), the first thing I did was check out The Times (Mario Vassallo's racism survey) , the Independent (Daphne's article on the absurdity of Maltese racism and our version of the tomatina) and a couple of blogs. My need to know what's going on in Little Rock, MLT (however vaguely) is quite weird but basically based on a long-standing love/hate relationship with the place. Since things are ALWAYS going on there (or rather, people are always SAYING something or other) the typing of "Times of Malta" in google has been invested with entertainment value akin to watching Big Brother (who has called whom a liar/complete idiot/low-life/snobby bitch/government lackey and - more recently - unwelcome scum of the earth who will pollute our pristine gene-pool and streets). Maybe that's why the idea of having an actual Maltese version of Big Brother always struck me as being quite odd. We've got one already (402,000 participants) with the blogging community providing its own critical input, often in the guise of the cynical, voice-over.

But back to Iceland and two things which came to mind as we strolled down Laugavegur through the centre of Reykjavik. A medium-sized building surrounded by lawn caught our attention (simply because it was surrounded by lawn) - and we guessed it was probably someone's picturesque house or, at a pinch, the post office. Our Icelandic friend revealed a few days later that it was "where the Cabinet met". At that point another reason for why our own politicians appear larger than life dawned on me. They're used to hanging out at Castilja and Verdala while Mr. Oddson and co. have got used to the little house on the lawn. Malta: population 402,000. Iceland: population 300,000.

Which led me to another crazy thought. It would be a fantastic social experiment (and surely a first) to organise a nice little cultural exchange between Iceland and Malta. The entire population not just a few teachers from Reykjavik and Birkirkara. The possibilities are endless. Would Gonzi, Sant and Harry, having to contend with a small population (again) but a massive landmass of lava, glaciers and volcanoes, slightly slip into the background? Would the Icelanders find it painfully difficult to run a small, hot Mediterranean country? And, more interestingly, how would the populations adapt to their new habitats? Would the Times of Malta in Iceland still carry biblical sermons in the guise of letters to the editor and how would Morgenbladid in Malta react to world events? The experiment would certainly have the advantage of pointing out where the problems really lie besides being very very funny.  ¶ 7:02 AM 4 comments

  101 Reykjavik Land of fire and ice, land of the sagas, land of Geysir, land of the Runtur, land of Halldor Laxness, land of lava...

They've even got a Blue Lagoon


From: Margret Gunnarsdottir
Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2005 11:45 AMTo: FRIGGIERI David (ENTR)Subject: hot clubs Iceland
Hi David,
I just spoke to my friend, Agusta, and the hottest club at the moment is Oliver, it is in Laugavegur (the main street). Be early to get in, she said.
Another good place is Thorvaldsen which is located in Austurvöllur.
Then, last but not least it is Kaffibarinn, located in one of the side streets of Laugavegur, famous from the movie 101 Reykjavik and famous from being partly owned by Damon Albarn (the singer from the band the Blur). Or maybe he has sold his share? I don't know, the place is tiny and always crowded at least.

Two cafes to recommend are Sufistinn, which is a book cafe, located in Laugavegur on the 2nd floor of the bookstore Mal og menning. It's really nice, you bring all the books, magazines you want from the bookstore and sit down and enjoy with your coffee. Then I recommend the "day after" cafe Grái Kötturinn, which is located in Hverfisgata (parallel street to Laugavegur). Excellent pancakes, fried eggs,bacon etc. and a cool place. A bit "Seinfeld" if you know what I mean.

So, have a nice time and we will meet on the 17th in Reykjavik :)

ciao
M  ¶ 3:03 AM 1 comments

  Forza Roma! Boys will be boys - Manwel mal-Hibs, Mark mal-Furjana, Jacques mal-Juve ('94-'98 Belle EPOque) u jien inzomm ma' dawn... Malta nzomm mal-Melita, it-tim li kont nilghab mieghu.

Il Tribunale arbitrale dello sport (Tas) ha accettato la richiesta di sospensiva della Roma in merito al "caso Mexes" che aveva portato al blocco del mercato dei giallorossi. La Roma potrà quindi ingaggiare regolarmente i neo acquisti Nonda, Kuffour e Taddei ed accettare eventuali contropartite tecniche nel caso decida di cedere Antonio Cassano  ¶ 5:06 AM 2 comments

  DJ Darth www.keltechandjohnnyB.com

filwaqt li dejjem kurjuzi d-differenzi lingwistici fl-ismijiet...

Dark Vador (Darth Vader en anglais) est un personnage de La Guerre des étoiles.  ¶ 8:49 AM 0 comments

  http://leconcertinvisible.com/ Last Sunday I picked up my friend Jerome from his place in Molenbeek and helped him cart his turn-tables, speakers, rekids and CDs to Grand'Place where he was set to perform a DJ set with a difference: classical music in a beautiful open space. The idea is to try this out in Malta, possibly next summer.

In the meantime, my fave bookshop - Filigrane on Avenue des Arts - provided me with a gem that gybexi and rizzo must get their hands on. La Fugue a Bruxelles is about all sorts of wonderful and interesting people who escaped to Brussels at one point of their lives. Some escaped for love, others because their own country became unbearable, others just needed a stop-over en route to somewhere else...  ¶ 11:06 AM 3 comments