Gomorra

It is the most devastating book I’ve read in a few years. It analyzes the phenomenon of camorra, one of several kinds of Italian mafia, relatively little known before the publishing of that book, yet probably the most dangerous one.
Saviano, a journalist who comes from Calabria, the region dominated and corrupted by camorrists, shows the mechanisms of how such a criminal organization operates.

The book consists of personal accounts of the author who, as a person born in Calabria, witnessed the tragic consequences of camorra crimes more than once, and also you can find there typical journalistic articles describing scandals connected with camorra, police actions and investigations, details of shady operations and illicit businesses.

The most terrifying and shocking fact is that camorra has become the inherent and indispensable part of Calabrian economy and society to such an extent that it’s almost impossible to imagine how the whole region could function without
it. The workshops controlled by the mafia produce clothes for the most famous Italian fashion designers, the local councils are so corrupted that the vast majority of them, 90 per cent approximately, have had to be replaced with the special commissioners appointed directly by the central government. Moreover, it is difficult to find the construction company which is not somehow connected with the criminals.

The waste disposal business is totally controlled by the mafia, which makes Calabria one of the most polluted regions in Europe. Have you been to Naples? Have you seen those enormous, huge piles of trash and waste? This is because the waste disposal business in the city is controlled by the camorra. To make matter worse, according to the book they bring even more dangerous and toxic waste to Calabria just to make money.

They don’t care about the fact that they pollute the region where they live. Saviano wrote this book to inform and alarm the public opinion. He reached his aim. Unfortunately, the criminals, who try to avoid publicity at all costs because it is bad for business, sentence him to death.

Threes Cups of Tea

More than the book itself, I love what this book is looking to achieve. One man's obsession for children in a country half a world away, is humbling and inspiring.

The structure of the book was more disjointed than I expected it to be and it was sometimes hard to follow the sequence of events and places. But perhaps that is reflective of the character of our hero, who seems never to be able to stay in one place for more than a few weeks at a time.

I have to say that one of the relatively unsung heroes of the book is Greg Mortenson's wife. She must be a woman of vast patience and understanding, to see her husband disappear so regularly and for such lengths of time, and to be left with the responsibility of parenting their children whilst he is occupied with the care of thousands of other children.

He says that instead of fighting with wars that do nothing but destroy and set back education of other countries people, that we should be empowering them with education...especially the women. A man will go to school and learn, and then go off in the world and never teach, but a woman will learn and then teach it to her daughters and friends and tribe, continuing the education for generations to come. This is why it is so important to build school for poor, suffering country.

 Must Read!

                                                          Seif al Din
 

Mohamed Bouazizi, a young man of 26 years old, head of a big family had been pushed to the edge because of the lack of opportunities, the abuses of the police, the economic situation and the humiliation, he decides to buy gasoline, spread it all over himself and standing in front of the city hall and  ...burst into flames!

A simple act of human desperation and nervous breakdown, this act had unleashed one of the biggest civil movements in this century, the Egypt’s had took this act as a symbol, what I called the Seif al Din (Sword of Fate) to fight against Hosni Mubarak, who has been a dictator for almost 30 years.

Today, Egypt has entered into history as the first Islamic state that had achieved the revolution; the last revolution in the Islamic world was the Islamic revolution in Iran (1979), and the last one in Africa, specifically in Egypt began with Gamal Abdel Nasser who was the leader in the revolutionary movement in 1952, he represented a change in politics, justice and the idea of the pan Arabism.

Today, we have been witnesses of a new real revolutionary movement; today we have seen that is possible to do a revolution with creating a full state of war, today we know that it is possible to change the old paradigms, today we watched an entire country, an entire population speaking up their minds, today we observed Christians and Muslims joined in one goal, today we saw the army executing the judgment of the people.

This is a landmark in the Egyptian history, the army declared an exception state, and a new beginning is at their sight; this is an example of the things that any country could accomplish, again, today was Egypt, tomorrow could be Yemen, Tunisia Morocco… and Mexico?

Mubarak to all the Egyptians!