#francesca borri

[julia-geiser]

[conatus]

"Que paraíso é este? Entre os jihadistas das Maldivas", Francesca Borri

Imagine o paraíso: atóis de coral esmeralda emergindo de um oceano azul-turquesa, praias de areia branca imaculada, resorts luxuosos que prometem o esquecimento de todas as preocupações. Este é o arquipélago das Maldivas, o cartão-postal idílico que o mundo conhece. Mas e se o sussurro das palmeiras escondesse o eco sinistro de cânticos jihadistas? E se, por trás dos sorrisos dos guias…

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[theunimpairedcondition]

Woman’s work

The twisted reality of an Italian freelancer in Syria

From the 2013 Jul/Aug issue of the CJR, this is one of the finest pieces of writing I've ever read in my life. It covers so much ground in so little time that my head spins. In less than 2000 words Borri manages to cover western degeneracy, capitalism and spectacle, labour exploitation, journalistic malfeasance, the death of publishing, corporatisation of the commons, misogyny, xenophobia, islamophobia, white-saviour complex, machismo, the futility of war, and love. Each graf is a gd haymaker right until the final KO.

...The editors back in Italy only ask us for the blood, the bang-bang. I write about the Islamists and their network of social services, the roots of their power... I strive to explain, not just to move, to touch, and I am answered with: “What’s this? Six thousand words and nobody died?”

[...]

...Another reporter comes over, looks me up and down, and says: “This isn’t a place for women.” What can you say to such a guy? Idiot, this isn’t a place for anyone. If I’m scared, it’s because I’m sane.

[...]

Because really the only story to tell in war is how to live without fear. It all could be over in an instant. If I knew that, then I wouldn’t have been so afraid to love, to dare, in my life; instead of being here, now, hugging myself in this dark, rancid corner, desperately regretting all I didn’t do, all I didn’t say. You who tomorrow are still alive, what are you waiting for? Why don’t you love enough? You who have everything, why you are so afraid?

[thenewinquiry]

What is Aleppo?

“It’s no surprise that those who don’t care don’t know. Who is shocked that the libertarian candidate is fuzzy on foreign policy? Such disregard is almost woven into the libertarian’s political isolationism; a week later, Gary Johnson struggled to name a single foreign leader he admires, and joked that he was having an ‘Aleppo moment.’ This city, synonymous with collective failure to empathize, has become a rhetorical dismissive shrug. But Johnson isn’t the only one having ‘Aleppo moments.’ What do we make of the fact that those who presumably do care—who believe themselves knowledgeable and authoritative, like the “paper of record”—seem to imagine that they know so much more about Aleppo than they actually do?

Borri has answers here too. For her, Aleppo is not a moment, but the culmination of many choices: a refusal to understand the Middle East beyond tropes; an unwillingness to effectively reform the international humanitarian system; and a lazy, un-creative journalism all conspire to create the ‘Aleppo Moment’ we’re living in. Not an unwillingness to remember but an inability to engage, leaving thousands to suffer unnecessarily. It is a reckoning with everything the humanitarian system developed in the post-war environment promised but failed to become.”

http://thenewinquiry.com/essays/what-is-aleppo/

[shofar-brasil]

Francesca Borri relatórios de Ramallah, onde os negócios substituiu política, e você pode viver sem sentir a ocupação militar que se esconde em todos os lados.

[mzelletetedslesnuages]

Tout peut basculer

Tout peut basculer en une fraction de seconde. 

Si j’avais su cela, alors je n’aurais pas 

       eu si peur d’aimer, d’oser, dans ma vie ; 

au lieu d’être ici, maintenant, 

recroquevillée dans l’obscurité et la puanteur, 

en regrettant désespérément tout ce que je n’ai pas fait, 

tout ce que je n’ai pas dit. 

Vous qui demain serez encore en vie, qu’attendez-vous ? 

Pourquoi hésitez-vous à aimer ? 

Vous qui avez tout, pourquoi avez-vous si peur ?

Poème de Francesca Borri

[kebikec]

Into dust and smoke

From an interview on Syria Deeply with the Italian journalist Francesca Borri 

What is your most striking memory from your recent trip to Aleppo, the moment you'll never forget?

Borri: During my first days in Aleppo in October 2012, the first weeks of the battle, I was with a group of freelance journalists. We were under heavy mortar fire and at one point we had to rush to seek shelter. We found a building that was packed with women, children and families, and there was no space for me to enter. There wasn’t even a square meter. An old man came out and told me that I had to come in – he said my life was more important than his because I, as a journalist, could tell the world what was happening in Syria. I remember this old man disappearing into dust and smoke … this image will be with me till my last day as a journalist.

[sognatriceconipiediaterra]

Solo che è di nuovo il nostro turno, adesso. [...]. Sono i momenti più feroci. Perchè la mente è ancora lucida: e mentre il pilota sceglie il suo obiettivo, mentre forse tocca a te, non ti rimane che strigerti a te stesso, le spalle contro un muro umido, e fissare il pavimento insieme a tutto quello che hai lasciato a metà, nella tua vita, tutto quello che hai rinviato, mentre ti guardi, intorno, adesso che forse tocca a te. Se anche avessi qualcosa da dire, qui in mezzo a degli sconosciuti, e qualsiasi cosa tu possa dire, qualsiasi nome, qualsiasi desiderio, qualsiasi rimpianto, a chi dirli mai? Chiunque ti manchi, chiunque tu abbia amato, in mezzo a questi occhi neri, la fame, il fango, questa pelle di brace, questi volti esausti, in mezzo a queste vite che non sono la tua, questo aereo che torna. Ti chiedono 'Tutto bene?', la verità è che neppure conoscono il tuo nome, mentre ovunque intorno, intanto, bombardano.

La guerra dentro (Francesca Borri)