articles in English

Trench First ‘World War’ & Lockdown ‘First World’ War

That what we have experienced in the past two years is a form of world warfare is a fact that perhaps will appear sooner or later increasingly clear. It is quite trivial to acknowledge how, after all, since the first measures for the containment of SARS-COV-2 – a strain of coronavirus – there was a war to be declared against something, and the main leaders of the world, along with the information conglomerates, media-technologists, biopolitical potentates have done everything to ensure that it is fought by all means and all the personnel: civilian, medical and military (by now it is worthwhile to distinguish these).

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articles in English

To Never Forget

As the harsher voices of what has been and has happened in the last two years begin to fade and withdraw, I think it is important to try to keep a clear memory of it all. Personally, perhaps as a consequence of living in a civilized country (UK) where you can spend whole days without talking about COVID, vaccines and even seeing a mask, a certain ghost re-emerges, sometimes in dreams, sometimes in front of you, physical and heavy. It is the ghost of the pandemic…

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articles in English

A thousand flowers will bloom

Things are about to change: surprisingly, by Italian standards, they are about to change very soon. Something is finally coming to the surface, a sprout, ready to bloom. Something is changing – and only yesterday, on the 21st January, 2022, to cite the desired concreteness, vice-secretary to Health Pierpaolo Sileri, a growingly popular figure, confessed that within a few weeks there will be an important turning point in our lives – and we should return to ‘complete’ normality. Because? Because, of course, the vaccination campaign is a success. Omicron is not as lethal as previously thought – or they thought. We are back on track. And as it was said and repeated, everything will be alright. Unfortunately, this is a fairy tale…

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articles in English, coronavirus

Trench First ‘World War’ & Lockdown ‘First World’ War

That what we have experienced in the past two years is a form of world warfare is a fact that perhaps will appear sooner or later increasingly clear. It is quite trivial to acknowledge how, after all, since the first measures for the containment of SARS-COV-2 – a strain of coronavirus – there was a war to be declared against something, and the main leaders of the world, along with the information conglomerates, media-technologists, biopolitical potentates have done everything to ensure that it is fought by all means and all the personnel: civilian, medical and military (by now it is worthwhile to distinguish these).

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by Lapo Maria Zati
articles in English, coronavirus, media

To Never Forget

As the harsher voices of what has been and has happened in the last two years begin to fade and withdraw, I think it is important to try to keep a clear memory of it all. Personally, perhaps as a consequence of living in a civilized country (UK) where you can spend whole days without talking about COVID, vaccines and even seeing a mask, a certain ghost re-emerges, sometimes in dreams, sometimes in front of you, physical and heavy. It is the ghost of the pandemic…

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by Lapo Maria Zati
articles in English, coronavirus, dictatorship, Italy

A thousand flowers will bloom

Things are about to change: surprisingly, by Italian standards, they are about to change very soon. Something is finally coming to the surface, a sprout, ready to bloom. Something is changing – and only yesterday, on the 21st January, 2022, to cite the desired concreteness, vice-secretary to Health Pierpaolo Sileri, a growingly popular figure, confessed that within a few weeks there will be an important turning point in our lives – and we should return to ‘complete’ normality. Because? Because, of course, the vaccination campaign is a success. Omicron is not as lethal as previously thought – or they thought. We are back on track. And as it was said and repeated, everything will be alright. Unfortunately, this is a fairy tale…

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by Lapo Maria Zati
articles in English, dictatorship, ethics, globalisation, political anthropology

A great metaphor for a society that has turned upside-down: An arsonist becomes chief of a fire department (real news story)

Here is a weird coincidence, and I’m not sure whether it’s funny or sad. In november I published a article on the “Firefighter Effect” in International Political Anthropology and I argued that this world was actively promoting a reversal of values at global scale (e.g. healing vs killing, protection vs aggression etc.).

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by Marius I. Bența