Editorial : When You Die You Die Alone
There were workers on the top of a building very close to Saint Peter’s square, yesterday. They didn’t seem very concerned about what was going on below them . I guess when you’re fixing a roof about six floors above the street level, you’d better be careful. But the entire rest of the world was certainly focused on that big square yesterday. At twelve o’clock I asked a tourist family with two kids were they were coming from, they said that they had just come to Rome from Venice to see what would happen with the pope.
On Friday afternoon Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said that the pope was not in a coma, that he is still able to speak and undestand and he was lucid and tranquill. But apparently, "As of dawn this morning, the start of a compromised state of consciousness was observed." The first thing the pope said after the celebration of the Friday Mass was directed to the crowd in Saint Peter’s square: "In fact, he seemed to be referring to them when, in his words, and repeated several times, he seemed to have said the following sentence: ‘I have looked for you. Now you have come to me. And I thank you,"’ the vatican spokesman said.
Being in Rome during these days is like being in the same house with millions of people, as they are all talking about the pope’s imminent death. Just turn on a radio, choose a random station and listen...
The Roman “On the Air” community is usually 90 % devoted to soccer, but right now no one even dares to speak about their teams, that would be blasphemy, horrible, they say.
The truth is that there is a “provincial” mindset that is virtually unbeatable and I am very sorry to say that about my city. These “soccer radios” programs are usually meant to last for four-five hours and they are filled with ex-soccer players talking about the same thing again and again, to the point where you know that “the game is not going to be easy”, or, “this team is well prepared”, or an even worse, “I hope that the best team will win”. In about five hours there are of course at least two and a half hours of advertising, always with the same jingles, characterized by a humiliating level of culture. It seems like they are talking with lobotomized people.( I mean no offence for those who are really suffering for this).
This is a good example of what’s happening around the pope’s figure right now, everyone is talking about it, even those who are usually out of touch with his reality. The same “soccer radios” never ever mention what’s happening in Iraq, for example, so that if a bomb explodes in Baghdad killing hundreds of people, they will just, as usual, talk about that player or the other one, that game or that stadium.
I was listening to Ersilio Tonini, a well known Monsignor here in Italy, talking to a national news radio station. The journalist asked how we could pray for John Paul II in his agony and what would be a good prayer to say for him. Tonini took a moment to answer, as he is old and his voice has that tone that only a priest can achieve, almost chanting. I heard this priest saying “This is an astonishing moment” and “ In this marvelous event”, or “ This beautiful moment of connection between the actual world and the holy world”. He was talking in his own religious language in a very distorted way, using these totally inapropiate words and descriptions about the death of a man.
Yes, a man, just like those who are exploding and splattering their organs all around the Middle East, in a daily endless and hopeless war. But they don’t really fit the news today, as they did yesterday. What ‘s “hot” now is this single man suffering to his last breath, and the entire world is there to watch the show. I saw women standing in Saint Peter’s Square dressed as medieval citizens praying and crying for hours (I wonder who they are in the real life), thousand of people staring at the same empty window, children playing in the square completely carefree with their parents chatting and smoking cigarettes, waiting for the condition of Karol Wojtyla. The all scene reminded a medieval execution.
Tonini was the perfect example, in my opinion, of how not to behave in such circumstances. There is nothing “Marvellous” or “Beautiful” or “Astonishing” in what was going on with the Pope. He is dying, period. He is suffering (holy morphine), period. I am as sorry as everyone about his death and his agony, but please let him die in peace.
Fabrizio De Andrè said in a song, “Dear brothers from the other side of the river, we chanted together on the earth, we all loved the same women, we left in a thousand together for the same war, you dont’t have to feel relief by this memory, when you die you die alone”.
Please leave this pope a moment to die alone.
ALSO IN BLOGGERNEWS.NET
Il Romanaccio at 3:24 PM
IRAQ : CAR BOMB KILLS 5
Five people were killed when a car bomb exploded close to the police station of Kan Bani Saad on Saturday morning. Four were police officers.
CNN
Il Romanaccio at 12:55 PM
YEMEN : SIXTEEN PEOPLE KILLED IN A GUNBATTLE
10 soldiers and six memebers of a Shia Muslim fighters group died in a gunbattle in Yemen. The "Believing Youth" formed by the Shia leader Hussain al-Huthi, died on last September during clashes with the police, is probably linked to Iran and is trying to take control of the government to install a Shia-guided revolution.
al-Jazeera
Il Romanaccio at 12:44 PM
LEBANON : BLAST WOUNDS SEVENA bomb exploded in a residential center of Brummana, close to Beirut, on Friday at 9.45pm (1845GMT)wounding seven people. The blast has seriously damaged a residential centre. According to the police, one of the injured was an American.
al-Jazeera
Il Romanaccio at 12:36 PM
IRAQ : A US TRANSLATOR AMONG THE KIDNAPPED
The US State Department declared that there is an American translator among the three Romanian journalists abducted last week in Iraq.
CNN
Il Romanaccio at 12:52 PM
UN APPROVES PROSECUTION OF THE SUDANESE WAR CRIMES SUSPECTS
UN Security Council has signed the resolution to prosecute Sudanese war crimes suspects before the International Criminal Court.
al-Jazeera
Il Romanaccio at 12:49 PM
IRAQ : IRAQI CHIEF OF POLICE ASSASSINATED
Colonel Hatim Rashid Muhammad was killed in an ambush along with his guards in Balad Ruz, northeast of Baghdad.
al-Jazeera
Il Romanaccio at 12:45 PM
PALESTINE : ABBAS, "MORE TROOPS IN RAM ALLAH"Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas wants more troops deployed in Ram Allah, after his compound was attacked by a group of fighters.
al-Jazeera
Il Romanaccio at 1:02 PM
IRAQ : THREE KILLED AND 16 WOUNDED BY A BOMB
Tuz Khurmatu, north of Baghdad, a bomb exploded close to a Shia Muslim shrine killing three people and wounding 16 on Thursday.
al-Jazeera
Il Romanaccio at 12:57 PM
Investigation on al-Hariri's Death
An international inquiry on Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri's death will be set up by Kofi Annan. US France and Britain are the involved countries.
al-Jazeera
Il Romanaccio at 12:52 PM
Israel : Israeli Ambassador Found Seriously Wounded
According to Israel's Foreign Minister an envoy in Ethiopia was found shot at his home in Addis Ababa. Doron Grossman's health conditions are described as critical and investigators said there was no proof of a terrorist act.
BBC
Il Romanaccio at 2:19 PM
A Memo Explains US' Methods With Prisoners
The American Civil Liberties Union was able to obtain a memo through the US Freedom of Information Act. The document shows how prisoners are treated in US jails.
BBC
Il Romanaccio at 2:15 PM
Four Afghan Policemen Killed in An AmbushFour Afghan border policemen were killed on Tuesday by some Taliban fighters.
They were attacked in the Anar Darah district of the western Farah province while patrolling the area. As reported by governor Assadullah Falah, "Farah border police were ambushed by terrorists as they were in a patrol and four police were martyred on Tuesday."
al-Jazeera
Il Romanaccio at 2:09 PM
Syria Announces Complete WithdrawalSyrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shara sent a letter to UN secretary General Kofi Annan to announce the complete withdrawal of his country's army from Lebanon before the election scheduled for May.
al-Jazeera
Il Romanaccio at 2:06 PM
IRAQ : Romanian Journalists MissingThe CNN reported the potential abduction of three Romanian Journalists in Iraq.
Marie Jeanne Ion, Sorin Dumitru Miscoci and Ovidiu Ohanesian.
CNN
Il Romanaccio at 10:49 AM
IRAQ : Many Wounded In Kirkuk BlastA car bomb wounded at least 18 people in the city of Kirkuk, today at 9am (0600 GMT).
The blast occoured in a predominantly Kurdish area.
al-Jazeera
Il Romanaccio at 10:46 AM
PALESTINE : Hamas Is Ready To Join P.L.O.Hamas, the major resistance group in Palestine, is ready to join the Palestine Liberation Organization. Mahmud Zahar, one of the leaders of the resistance movement, said "Our decision to participate in the PLO is not new. It is a longstanding and clear decision."
al-Jazeera
Il Romanaccio at 10:46 AM
IRAQ : US OFFERS HALF A MILION DOLLAR FOR CAPTURED AMERICAN SOLDIER
The US military offered a reward of US$500,000 for anyone providing information that helps to find “Steve.” The American leaflet addressed the people of Ramadi saying, “Steve loves you and peace, help set him free.”
Free IraqJihad UnspunToday in Iraq
Il Romanaccio at 3:53 PM
IRAQ : PIPELINE RE-DESTROYEDA newly repaired pipeline south of Kirkuk that connects to the Baiji refinery was destroyed again by a group of fighters. A fireman from the "Northern Oil Company", Abd Allah Hamad Ali said, "The pipeline was only just repaired yesterday, but it has been attacked again."
al-Jazeera
Il Romanaccio at 2:27 PM
PALESTINE : The City Of Janine Raided By Israeli Forces.Eight Palestinian said to be resistance fighters were arrested when Israeli forces raided the city of Jenine. The military operation started at 2.30am on Monday, about 40 military veihcles invaded the city. Palestinian authorities claim the arrested were not resistance fighters but normal citizens.
al-Jazeera
Il Romanaccio at 2:21 PM
IRAQ : A DAY OF VIOLENCE Seven people killed and many others wounded by a bomb south of Baghdad on Monday.
Five people killed in Baghdad, including an Iraqi officer.
Another Iraqi soldier, a university professor, and a woman killed in Mosul.
Colonel Riyad Gati Ulaiywi was executed in a videotape by a group calling itself al-Quaida in the Land of Two Rivers.
al-Jazeera
Il Romanaccio at 2:15 PM
IRAQ : Is Violence Slowly Fading?According to the Guardian Unlimited(The Observer), recent reports from Middle Eastern secret services are optimistics about the future in Iraq. Even if attacks against coalition troops are still taking place and car bombs are still exploding, the inner strength of the insurgents is sligthly ending. Were the elections a "quantum shift", leading to a normal political environment?
The Guardian Unlimited-(The Observer)
Il Romanaccio at 12:54 PM
ISRAEL : Rice Denies ContrastsSecretary of State Condoleeza Rice denied any form of political contrast between the USA and Israel regarding the occupied settlements, adding that any decision will have to consider the will of the population.
CNN
Il Romanaccio at 12:44 PM
LEBANON : BLAST KILLS TWOAnother bomb in a mainly Christian area in Beirut exploded in Saturday, killing two people and wounding eight. This is the third bomb to rocks the Capital in a week.
According to official sources, the balst of Saturday was caused by a car bomb in the district of Dikuana.
al-JazeeraCNN
Il Romanaccio at 12:34 PM
