Perspectives

Solaris

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As Stanisław Lem wrote in Solaris, “Where there are no men, there cannot be motives accessible to men”.

Surfing the Edge of Chaos

Just lock the bike to the rack and sway to the beat of the track.

Footsteps in the Sea

Even though it was December, we enjoyed a sweet walk on the seashore today: blue sky, calm sea, and a sunny day. Photos: Mado Flynn.

Noah’s Ark

German NGO rescue ship Sea Watch decided to file a case at the European Human Rights Court against Italy for refusing to allow its ship carrying 47 rescued migrants to dock. Sea Watch’s spokesman Ruben Neugebauer points the finger against Italy’s far-right interior minister, who would be “taking the people on board as political hostages”. The Po Valley strongman’s hardline attitude was also harshly contested by Italian Association for Infant Mental Health (AISMI): “As infant mental health workers we reiterate the urgency of immediately landing migrants, so as to help them with the necessary health and psychological care, especially children and adolescents. Their unwarranted and inadmissible detention onboard the Sea Watch represents a further abuse perpetrated against them — specifically by Italian authorities, which instead have the duty of safeguarding the physical and psychological health of anyone is found on Italian territory”, AISMI President Giampaolo Nicolais said.

A street art graffiti by British artist Banksy. Credit: Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images.

The Importance of Not Being Arcovazzi

Italy’s Democratic Party delegation finally climbed aboard the NGO rescue ship Sea Watch, which is anchored, with 47 asylum seekers (among them there are at least 13 minors), in waters close to the Sicilian city of Siracusa, Italy since a week ago, due to the refusal of the far-right interior minister to give it access to Italy’s ports. All Italy’s parties apparently agree that for this, as for what occurred with the vessel Diciotti last August, the far-right interior minister should be prosecuted and put on trial.

A boy riding a pig. Artwork by Banksy.

The Importance of Not Being Arcovazzi

Málaga, Spain: Women are helped to disembark from a migrant rescue vessel. The Spanish Maritime Rescue Service saved 183 people from dinghies and brought them to the harbour, where they were assisted by the Cruz Roja Española (Spanish Red Cross). Photo: Jesús Mérida/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock.

The Importance of Not Being Arcovazzi

Mediterranean Sea: A migrant takes a selfie with an NGO volunteer as he and others prepare to be transferred on to a Maltese vessel following the announcement that Malta has reached a deal with other EU member states to allow migrants onboard to disembark. Photo: Federico Scoppa/AFP/Getty Images.

The Importance of Not Being Arcovazzi

Málaga, Spain: A woman and her child disembark from a Spanish coastguard vessel after being rescued from an inflatable boat carrying 188 people. Photo: Jorge Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images.

Blue and Red

Málaga, Spain: A group of people wait to disembark from a rescue ship after attempting to cross the Mediterranean from north Africa. Photo: Jon Nazca/Reuters.

The Importance of Not Being Arcovazzi

Mediterranean Sea: People rest onboard the rescue ship Aquarius, which the NGOs SOS Méditerranée and Médecins Sans Frontières operate off the coast of Libya. Photo: Maud Veith/AFP/Getty Images.

Two Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)

Thousands of people had gathered in Piazza San Babila, Milan, Italy on August 28, 2018 to protest under the slogan “Europe Without Walls” against Italy’s far-right interior minister and Hungarian far-right prime minister, who were sitting in a closed room of the prefecture palace for allegedly holding a meeting aimed at forming a common anti-migration front. Quite surprisingly, after the rendez-vous, the two hard-right bosses praised each other with sincere camaraderie, and wished each other to share the same destiny. Photo: la Repubblica.

Just don’t ask him to be a statist

The result of an inspection commendably requested by the Commander of the vessel Diciotti, and carried out in the morning of Saturday, August 25, 2018 by physicians of the Ministry of Health and USMAF (Maritime, Aviation and Border Health Office), certified that at least eleven women among the migrants on board were actually raped in Libya’s detention centres, where Italy’s far-right interior minister intended to send them back, and about which he had said just last June 25: “Lybia’s detention facilities are in the vanguard, let’s stop with the rhetoric of torture”.

Photo elaboration by Russian fine art photographer Platon Yurich. Photo © Platon Yurich.

Ghost Vessel

The Prosecutor of Agrigento, Luigi Patronaggio, on Saturday left without speaking to reporters after questioning two Interior Ministry lower-level officials at the Rome prosecutors’ office, Italian news agency ANSA reported. The Prosecutor could decide to investigate suspected kidnapping, after the guarantor of personal rights office concluded this week that the migrants were being unjustly held by the government.

The Prosecutor of Agrigento, Luigi Patronaggio (centre), on the Ubaldo Diciotti vessel in Catania, Sicily. Photo: Orietta Scardino/EPA.

The Importance of Not Being Arcovazzi

Doctors ordered on Saturday that 17 sick migrants be allowed to leave the Italian Coast Guard vessel Diciotti docked for five days in Catania, Italy to urgently receive proper medical care, while the remaining 133 people on board are still held as hostages by Italy’s far-right government, which so far might have already violated at least 8 national and international laws.

Migrants wait to disembark from the Italian Coast Guard vessel Diciotti at the port of Catania, Italy on August 22, 2018. Photo: Reuters/Antonio Parrinello.

The People from Another Place

• Associated Press, The Latest: Italy official: migrants kept on ship unjustly, The Washington Post, August 23, 2018

Migrants wait to disembark from Italian Coast Guard ship Diciotti in the port of Catania, Italy on Thursday, August 23, 2018. A delegation from Italy’s guarantor of personal rights office has boarded a coast guard ship in a Sicilian port with 150 African migrants stuck aboard for days, after the Italian far-right interior minister vowed none will set foot on Italian soil. Photo: Orietta Scardino/ANSA via AP/Associated Press

The Saga of the Aryan Dwarfs

• Roberto Saviano, Italy’s war on migrants makes me fear for my country’s future, The Guardian, August 19, 2018

The wave of hatred whipped up against Africans who haven’t yet even set foot in the country is being visited on the migrants who are already living here. Italians are going backwards, socially, amid an upsurge of nationalism that displays racist animus against anything perceived to be an alien body. [Read more].

The Importance of Not Being Arcovazzi

Migrants rescued at sea wait to be transferred at the harbour of Algeciras, Spain. Photo: AFP/Jorge Guerrero.

How Rose could have saved Jack

Mediterranean Sea: The NGO Proactiva Open Arms’ migrant rescue boat “Astral”. Photo: Juan Medina/Reuters.