An eagle build a nest on a tree, and hatched out some eaglets. And a wild sow brought her litter under the tree.

The eagle used to fly off after her prey, and bring it back to her young. And the sow rooted around the tree and hunted in the woods, and when night came she would bring her young something to eat.

And the eagle and the sow lived in neighborly fashion. And a grimalkin laid her plans to destroy the eaglets and the little sucking pigs. She went to the eagle, and said:

"Eagle, you had better not fly very far away. Beware of the sow; she is planning an evil design.
She is going to undermine the roots of the tree. You see she is rooting all the time."

Then the grimalkin went to the sow and said:

"Sow, you have not a good neighbor. Last evening I heard the eagle saying to her eaglets:
'My dear little eaglets, I am going to treat you to a nice little pig. Just as soon as the sow is gone, I will bring you a little young sucking pig.' "

From that time the eagle ceased to fly out after prey, and the sow did not go any more into the forest. The eaglets and the young pigs perished of starvation and grimalkin feasted on them.

Fables, Tolstoy.

Freedom to blog means freedom to think!
I can't believe that in Italy with no shame at all, and actually with a hint of proud our politician are ready to endorse a law that will bound the freedom of speach.

What does scare me on top of that is to know that the hand which is trying to narrow our blogs and somewhere try to tax us even before any mere profit has been made is the very same one which fork out hundreds of milions every year to support the already rich Newspaper cosporation!

And again with stile very much from this government "add insult to the injury" those pseudo politician, mask everything as an act of glory!

NO COMMENT! Send your photo here.

I've been in Romania many time and I've plenty of memories about that country, most of which are good ones.

But I like to recall one episode that took place in a night train on my way back to Bucuresti from Bacau, that is about 9hours journey during which I found me in the same compartment with a man on his forties.

I vividly remember the eager way he was glancing at me that oppose to my absent and quite sleepy gaze, I must specify here that as I water proof tested (and nearly patent) when it's time to travel I prepare myself with NO sleep at all, but since I'm keep missing flights or trains stops, I'm having a hard time to prove it.

Anyhow in that cold train we quickly found ourself in an animated converstion that would have kept us awake for the whole time of the travel (at least most of that for me)

This I reckon it's pretty amazing, because you have to realize that we weren't speaking the same language, AT ALL!

I was actally able to use a handfull of rumenian words but on the other hand my opposite hadn't even the capacity to say a turistic and common "Ciao Bella" or "MammaMia".

He was waiting nothing but to be thrown in a conversation with ME, holding at that point the foreigner role, so he started on sharing with me his point of view, he told me his stories of everyday struggle-life and his desire to tell me about his stories was second only to that of knowing mines, what were my opinion about his beloved country and then I remeber him being very concern about how much I did enjoy my time overthere and what my feelings were.

In short we spent a great time even if every now and then I must admit I suddenly felt asleep. but the point is just here! Since everytime I woke up he was there as much shy to bother me then eager to resume our conversation.
And who know me can bet I was as happy as him to carry on our talk! So this is how we kept chatting and laughing all the night!

The all meaning of this brief story is that if you dont' speak the same language it doesn't matter as far as you want to comunicate is very easy to do it, or actually it's not, but if you are tuly interested in what the person in front of you have to tell you the language is an easy obstacle.

Therefore remember, (and here I'm adressing to All the people who are native speaking) Therefore remember that when you meet somebody that is not fluent as you, this it doesn't mean He/her is stupid! Our level of mastering the language doesn't rappresent our level of wit.

Often is enough do the little (big for s.b.) effort to L I S T E N what other people have to tell us for coming back home lot richer!

The Blue Man

..."Strangers," the Blue Man said,
"are just family you have yet to come to know."...



With friends is a strange alchemy, i mean true friends, and I remember still the sound of my father voice telling me that if I was to be lucky in my whole life I could count true friend on the tip of my finger and using a single hand! Well few years later I can say that I feel quite lucky! And the uncommon thing that usually happen with old buddies is that the time seems not to flow, at all!

I was back in Italy after many months and a friend of Matteo made us notice how strange was for her the way we were speaking, because the feeling was of people that has just met a day earlier!
And was all normal for us, probably the fact we had known each other since ages did help quite a bit! But if with Matteo is a great relationship that we build up during an entire life i like to recall when we were up to organize one trip to Romania (Brasov to be accurate) that suddenly one night very much close to the departure day I was informed that two other unknown guys were up to join us.

Now, it's true I am a very outgoing person but at the same time my first feeling was very doubtful indeed I didn't want like to compromise my journey plan to mach other people (which I didn't even know) needs. Well in brief I couldn't be more wrong, that trip to Brasov has been Memorable as never before or since! Highly enjoyable, at intervals comically and sometimes annoying.

But now looking backwards I can connect the dots and see how, on that week or so we lay the foundation for a genuine friendship that won't fade with distance or time!

Still water run deep:
I've tooked this picture just yesterday afternoon, but if I did took it 50 years agoabd you couldn't have nootice the difference !
Do you know why? Because them in the mean time haven't change!

"Since I've moved down here the best part of the whole experience has still probably been the few weeks spent with Bruno up in Cairns,

Where more as two old friends than brothers we were used to embark on endless chat that would easily last entire nights,
during with the topic of our conversation would change every twenty minutes or some from one to another and then BANG ! back
Ranging (and often raging) from politics to movies, from economy to music, from sex to religion and so on...
Often agreeing as often as we didn't : ) so much and often so our flatmates believed we were fighting (often staring at us speechless : )
good memory indeed!"

Well what yesterday afternoon happened in front of my place here in Sydney strongly remind me about me and my brother fiercely chatting during our sleepless nights with the only difference I was with a bunch of young fellas with an average age of nearly 80yo! But with a sharp mind I hardly find in people of my age!
I was so lucky that after a jogging on my way home I met John who moved in Australia 56 years ago right from Italy, so when he find out I'm from there too, here that he start to share with me the highlits of his life and I was so eager to listen because John was honest and like a living Jake La Motta roll out what made his life great and what miserable revealing to be still a good enterteiner!
He did brook often our conversation starting to sing "Que Sera Sera" or pulling out of his sleeve a funny joke!
Aik on the other hand is happy-go-lucky person and you are free to not believe me but from his 80 years is one of the most funny person I've meet so far~! And in combination with the italian bloke the two of them were improvising a two men show just with miself as lonely standing audience!

We did debate to whom had been the real king of rock and roll (if Bill Haley or Elvis Presley), or about the new cinema standard or better NO standard at all! But apart from those kind of things we spoke about the situation of nowdays fact and the both of them did show me an outstanding intelligence about what it's happening about the world we are living in and the possible solution to make it better, we agree on many points, and the most important are the following:

• Why travelling happend to see inimagginable poor children with a disarming smile which we can find in western kids? We think that because one of our biggest mistake and one of the first lesson our children learn from us, is "Took it for granted" that's a big mistake that's a huge misunderstaniding how we are "Standing on the Giants Shoulders" without with our own endless selfish would crumble miserably!
• We spoke a lot about immigration and what make country rich or poor! And we realize that (as smarter people of us realized befor) that some country are lucky and some are not! We fear our future... I actually fear much more then my fellows (obviously) but we agreed that if 3 old friends on the wayside relize what went wrong is easy to believe that people with a large better education and high better points of view not just saw all that before, but even plan it, so the question is WHY ?

The easy answer is that GREEDINESS is what human beings are made off

link to the italian version on Youtube here.

And when again John start with his feeling how we are facing the scenario of a new World War (singing in Italian "Non ce' il due senza il tre" [there isn't any two without three] making shivering an even elderly hungarian woman whom by that point did join the three of us : )
To this tragic-comic sketch our friend Aik point out how that it's already on because the whole world is running out of money! And it's pretty true!

Now the conclusion about my new friends are that we should in primis respect whom came before us, try to understand what make things the way they are and what we can do to change for the better.

From myself I'm happy I had the chance to meet those great next door guys and I hope to stop for a lovely chat next time I'll spot them!
May be heading for a walk they both suffer a light diabetic or even better forgetting abut the sugar enjoy a nice chocolat outside a bar where the Aik's wife cannot find us and thus complain about it : )

My lesson for the day was "Don't judge a book from it's cover"

Declaration of Slavery:

I am Italian, and I am now living in Australia, so I couldn't bother that much about America, but I do really believe that we are all connected each other with a quite thick rope, and we must use that rope to rescue ourselves and not to hang each other.

We must learn from the people that came before us, as not make the same mistake but instead follow whom inspired us with great example and fearless.

Here is a link to a BeppeGrillo's blog page reading which I learn something about one of the greatest American men in recent history, that man is again Robert Kennedy, and this post is about that speach he delivered at the Kansas university:

It's so important to understand that this man had been killed because he was standing for his idea of equality and because he tried to be fair in a world that doesn't like the outside player like him.

"Too much and for too long, we seemed to have surrendered personal excellence and community values in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over $800 billion dollars a year, but that Gross National Product - if we judge the United States of America by that - that Gross National Product counts air pollution and cigarette advertising, and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwood and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and counts nuclear warheads and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman's rifle and Speck's knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children."

"Yet the gross national product does not allow for the health of our children, the quality of their education or the joy of their play. It does not include the beauty of our poetry or the strength of our marriages, the intelligence of our public debate or the integrity of our public officials. It measures neither our wit nor our courage, neither our wisdom nor our learning, neither our compassion nor our devotion to our country, it measures everything in short, except that which makes life worthwhile. And it can tell us everything about America except why we are proud that we are Americans."

In short my thought it's all about the acknowledgment of the fact that we live most of our lives to follow a dream that somebody else told us to dream, fearing what we are told to fear, and forgetting what is really important for us, i.e. that if we skim all the futile things, we would easily find out that there are plenty of better ones to live for, so don't wait it's too late do what you like but do it now! And let's try do it together!

Otherwise will be son too late!

40 Years later the same challenge.

This year is the anniversary of a sad year, the 1968 when two of the greatest American leader got shot dead in within few months.
Those men were Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King

Now 40 years later the same country is facing one of his biggest and deepest crisis Ever and a new challenge with the upcoming November election, that choice, will influence not just American citizen but all of us, so is our duty, our responsibly to express our thought and communicate it to all the American friends we have.

Spend few minutes to listen this 40 years old spech and DO not forget that to continue on the path we must do NOT forget where we came from and what happened before!
Lets share our hope.

"Ladies and Gentlemen,

I'm only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening, because I have some -- some very sad news for all of you -- Could you lower those signs, please? -- I have some very sad news for all of you, and, I think, sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world; and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tennessee.

Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it's perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black -- considering the evidence evidently is that there were white people who were responsible -- you can be filled with bitterness, and with hatred, and a desire for revenge.

We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization -- black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another. Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand, and to comprehend, and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand, compassion, and love.

For those of you who are black and are tempted to fill with -- be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man.

But we have to make an effort in the United States. We have to make an effort to understand, to get beyond, or go beyond these rather difficult times.

My favorite poem, my -- my favorite poet was Aeschylus. And he once wrote:

Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
until, in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom
through the awful grace of God.

What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence and lawlessness, but is love, and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or whether they be black.

So I ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King -- yeah, it's true -- but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love -- a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.

We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times. We've had difficult times in the past, but we -- and we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; and it's not the end of disorder.

But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings that abide in our land.

And let's dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.

Thank you very much."

Cairns 28 July 2008

I'm not a tourist any more (for the moment : ), and even though is quite a nice place in here and i can relax a bit, I kind of miss be on the road.

It was such a great time trough Asia that I cannot wait to hit that place once more! 

I made a baby cry:
On my childhood I was told to respect rules, and as a naughty boy I often didn't, so being a western my mother and most my granny try to frighten fear with the "black man" as bogeyman, which would have came to take me away if I did not go quickly to bed, or if i don't stop crying. All this it sound funny now, but I think it did work back then!

Even funnier is that my friend Steven (a Mauritian guy) told me once how his mother used the same trick to scare him, just changing the black with a WHITE evil one!

And today on my way to find the Maha Muni Pagoda I was approach by a local man which was holding with an hand his own daughter and pointing at me with the other one.
Before the kind guy finished to explain how to reach the pagoda his daughter start up to cry loud and she was genuine scared from the white (and full beard) man who not so often cross her neighborhood!

That was very funny for both her parents and myself, but I'm pretty sure they will use this episode as a warning to rise the little poor girl! : )

Today 1st of June I left Ireland starting a new journey.

I`ll blog every thought I feel to share, every image or sound which touch me and I`ll speak about people which will cross my path!
My trial is to give to whoever is reading a picture of me.
Hoping to meet again the same Daw I`ve met in Dublin.
Stay tuned!