La Gira

The fish and her friends ….

So our fish glided his little body past the angry neighbours who could not believe their ears. No one, certainly never an insider, had ever insulted them so by questioning the ways of their idyllic stream. But for everything there is a first, and for that mossy stream this little fish was indeed a first. And now, swimming breathlessly away from the mob, he was trying to reach the waterfalls and the big, unseen world under it. The little black fish looked down and saw his friends, who soon would go back to the same old life. What a thought! He took heart and said, ‘Farewell, my friends. Do not forget me.’

(Hakakian, Roya, 2004: Journey from the Land of No. A Girlhood caught in revolutionary Iran; New York: Crown Publishers: 31 f.)

Odi et Amo

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.

Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.

Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun,

So shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

(Kahlil Gibran: The Prophet, 1923)

The Stranger

And when he entered into the city all the people came to meet him, and they were crying out to him as with one voice.And the elders of the city stood forth and said:
Go not yet away from us.
A noontide have you been in our twilight, and your youth has given us dreams to dream.
No stranger are you among us, nor a guest, but our son and our dearly beloved.
Suffer not yet our eyes to hunger for your face.

(Kahlil Gibran: The Prophet, 1923)

The Direct Way

In order to arrive at knowledge of the motions of birds in the air, it is first necessary to acquire knowledge of the winds, which we will prove by the motions of water in itself, and this knowledge will be a step enabling us to arrive at the knowledge of beings that fly between the air and the wind.

Leonardo da Vinci

the new winter

Sure, much can be said about the reform that is known under the title

La buona scuola
and there may well be some positive aspects.
However, there is definitely a very good reason to populate today the squares and streets of Italy, in protest against the reforms.
Without going into detail, one aspect of the government measures is the precarisation of the position of teachers as the law
 prevede tra le altre cose l’assunzione di circa 100mila insegnanti precari
Interestingly precari translates easily into temporary.
  • if I hear teachers, talking about the situation at schools
  • if I listen to young people, talking about the situation after having left school or university and
  • if if I look at the various aspects of my current work, preparing the workshop on precarity, organised by TRANSFORM,
I can only hope that the protest reaches a level that urges politicians (and actually not only here in Italy) to move beyond temporary measures.
One point that is frightening: starting with precarisation of the teachers’ positions at school has the “side effect” of normalisation, of brainwashing, making young people think and accept that the lack of security is the only thing that can be taken for granted …
… Much remains to be done, though it may well be that it is not the reestablishment of old securities within societies that are characterised by extrem inequality. Instead …

She sang the heavenly lullaby,
The old song of abnegation,
By which the people, this giant fool,
Is lulled from its lamentation.

I know the tune, I know the words,
I also know every author;
I know they secretly drank wine,
While publicly preaching water.

A new song, a better song,
My friends will be my aim!
We should, right now on earth,

A kingdom of heaven proclaim.
Truth not only to be considered in Heine’s Germany