Equity

Of Angela Falconieri I cry, when I see my brothers suffer, I cry, when I get up at 4 in the morning to go meet to my illusions in orange and mandarin plantations for the modest sum of 25 euros if not less, I cry, when I see my brothers living in the ghettos without water and without electricity, almost impossible situation and unacceptable for humanity, I cry, and my heart hurts, I cry and suffer.[taken from Yen Fehi Bako, 'Ibrahim's tears', by Ibrahim Diabate] Often, gangmastering and agricultural exploitation are only talked about when it is in the news.When a laborer dies due to inhumane working conditions, when we talk about the state of the ghettos where these people live, due to cases of racism against immigrants who work in the fields.Attention lasts as long as media coverage.We know little about the lives of the laborers.And, together with their stories, we also lose, when they exist, their paths out of exploitation.Which do not only end with personal redemption, but are in tur...

Of Laetitia Leunkeu The European football championships were, among other things, a celebration of symbols.Among these an image has spread which speaks more than the words one would like to force onto the skin of its subject:a black child immortalized while in a moment of joy he waves the tricolor to celebrate the hard-earned victory against the English together with the others.His body soon becomes a political symbol.On the profiles on which his image appears, there is talk of proof of integration, inclusion, belonging.“This is Italy!” they shout. The instrumental use of a child is paradoxical, as in the painting in which he is portrayed and in the way the image is told, he appears as an anomaly, an irregularity of an established order, a banner to claim a notorious normality.Paradoxical as well as explanatory of a rather disappointing reality. Yes, this is Italy.It is that tendency to "I don't see colors", said hastily to dismiss any discussion that tries t...

A further tragedy has been added to the drama of the war in Ukraine and of those fleeing from the bombings of the Russian army which are devastating the country and causing civilian victims.That of those who cannot escape and remain stuck.Or those who succeed but with extreme difficulty and suffering abuse.The reason?The color of the skin.Racism knows no reasons, not even during conflicts. First the children, then the white women, then the white men and finally the Africans.It seems like a story from another time.Instead, it is the racial hierarchy that must be respected in order to get on a train at the station in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and leave as quickly as possible to reach safety.As if some lives are worth less than others.As if children and women with dark skin were not recognized as children, much less women. Yet those who, for various reasons, left Africa and lived in Ukraine until a few days ago say they have had no problems with its inhabitants who have always been fri...

Of Simone Benazzo The Swiss think tank Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime published a in May reports dedicated to the trafficking of people, drugs and money in the Western Balkans, edited by Walter Kemp, Kristina Amerhauser and Ruggero Scaturro. The study was one of the first to deal in a systemic and diachronic way with the evolutions that the "Balkan route" has experienced over the last half century.What was initially a corridor for narcotics later became, especially due to the wars in the former Yugoslavia, the El Dorado for arms traffickers and, in recent times, the obligatory route for tens of thousands of human beings fleeing from war, poverty, environmental catastrophes.  If since the 1970s the "Balkan route" mainly meant the drug trafficking network - especially heroin - which branches out across the Balkan peninsula, in 2015 the expression took on a new meaning.Around 1.5 million refugees and asylum seekers, mostly fleeing the war...

Of the Kafkaesque affair in which the journalist of the Guardian Lorenzo Tondo, intercepted by the Palermo Prosecutor's Office in the judicial case he was covering for his newspaper, we had spoken in this article.The story now gets rich of new chapters.Too bad, though, it's not a novel. Read also >> The Italian Guardian journalist 'intercepted' by the Palermo Prosecutor's Office:“They are discrediting my work” For the Guardian Tondo was following the so-called “Mered” case, a court case concerning the arrest of a dangerous Eritrean migrant trafficker, Medhanie Yehdego Mered, better known as “The General”. In June 2016, the Palermo Prosecutor's Office, in collaboration with the British National Crime Agency (NCA), announced that it had arrested Medhanie Yehdego Mered, accused of leading an organization based in Libya that managed the trafficking of Eritrean migrants to 'Europe.In his articles, however, Tondo had identified of the elements that...