A Christmas for crucifixes

Getting tired of same ol’ same ol’? Looking for something unique to decorate your Christmas living room? There you go: A rotated Nagorno-Karabakh flag, morphed into an impromptu Christmas tree.   OK, that’s a stretch. Also… A bit off topic? Perhaps you’d feel more comfortable around the classic iconography, which includes Coke Santas, coniferous trees covered with strings of Chinese LED lights and multicolored balls, the whole shebang drenched in red and green hues…   The Republic of Artsakh, as it is called, is one of those states that don’t exist; more precisely, it doesn’t exist since 1991, when they voted in favor of their independence. The corresponding mountainous region…

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Shattered Christmas, 20 Years After.

This short story represents the sequel to last year’s Christmas tale, Shattered Christmas; I’d strongly encourage you to read it first. Opening. Searching my folder, trying to make sense of all this mess. Photos of Nicole: remnants of another blue Christmas. Oh, who cares about Nicole. You want to go, then go! No one was holding you back. I’m trashing the photos. Where am I headed? Two years. It’s been two years. Reminiscing about my old self. Look at me, staring at the yellow wall, the flash message blaring “Connection refused”. In a week I’ll be back in Italy, in ***, my hometown. To participate in the funeral ceremony for my father. Crazy…

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Shattered Christmas

A small episode from many years ago. I was a little child walking down the street hand in hand with my daddy. We were living in the Italian town of ***. It was during the Christmas vacations, in fact I remember the festive illuminations that were still customary at the time: tinsels, stars, candle shapes made up of tiny leds, that sort of things. We were returning home through a maze of unfamiliar streets (at least unfamiliar to me); we’d just been to pay a visit to a great-aunt. Think of it, ’twas a bit inconsistent with the character of my father, an old-style militant agnostic, to follow the social…

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Oddities in the Berlin terror attack & a temptation to read more into it

Contrasts   Nowadays even wars are fought through the power of images. ISIS edits a glossy magazine where appallingly cruel actions get a polished professional presentation worthy of the National Geographic. Terrorists are recruited through internet forums, where propaganda movies are the basic staple of an exciting diet of strong imagery for the bloodlusty aspiring jihadist: think of the executions, where the hostages have been worn down through endless dry runs, so that they pose no resistance and appear completely subjugated to their murderers. Attacking Christmas is a natural choice for its symbolic value. Attacking a Christmas Market is even more incisive, because the shock effect is channeled through the…

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